Beneath the Waves
by duckie-force
Summary: 19 year old Kiku Honda had never before questioned his village's insistence on culling the local merpeople, until he came face to face with Herakles, who he just could not kill. After saving the merman's life, the two slowly formed a rapport and then a friendship... And then more than a friendship, all while keeping their very meeting a secret from their families and others.
1. Chapter 1

"Kiku… This is how we lay the nets. Just like this," the man stated, moving to lay the large sheets of weaved rope along the beach before him.

Kiku wasn't listening, his eyes focused on the wonders of the sea before him. It was all so interesting! Crabs and little fish and corals and anemones all lived in harmony under the waves. It looked so much more peaceful than the land.

"Kiku, are you paying attention to me?" The gruff voice commanded, and the boy looked up, face wide with surprise.

"Uhh…"

"It is important you learn this, Kiku… it will be your duty to do this one day."

"Okay…" The small boy nodded, his face uncertain.

"What's wrong?" The older of the two asked.

"Oto-san… Why do we set the nets out like this every year? Why trap the sea creatures when they look so much like us?"

A sad smile graced the lips of the father, before he frowned deeply, eyes set in a rage.

"My son… It is a matter of revenge."

"Kiku-nii, are you awake yet? We need to set the nets out today…" Came a voice through the door of Kiku's room. Opening his eyes from where he had had them closed, leaning on the windowsill, the young man looked to the other end of his room, crossing it and opening the door to reveal his sister Mei-Mei.

"Ah, you heard me," she smiled sweetly. "Come on, let's get Li and go already." Kiku nodded, and took his younger sibling downstairs, where the youngest of his brothers was leaning against the counter of the kitchen, looking totally indifferent.

"Hey, Kiku, let's like, go now, okay?" The pre-teen stated without a greeting, moving towards the door before Kiku had a chance to say anything.

"Okay, we're coming, right, Kiku?" Mei grinned, pulling Kiku along with them.

"Ah, yes, of course…" He confirmed, to which the younger two grinned wider, yelling back into the house.

"Yao! We're going now!"

"Okay, fine! Just be back by sunset, or I'll send Kasem out after you!" Their eldest brother shouted back, as the three youths headed out into the light of the day.

"Kasem? What's he gonna do, attack us with smiles?" Li snorted cynically, walking down towards the beach with his siblings. "Anyway, let's like, get these nets down and then be out of here. Everyone else in town gets nuts around this time of year anyway."

A few kilometres out to sea, an entirely different family began their day, nestled beneath the rough ocean. Light from the surface seeped down to a system of caves, built into the coral, which a group of intelligent sea creatures called home. Merpeople were more than just a myth; they lived and breathed, existed in the flesh, and had been at war with the people of the nearby land for over a generation. Nobody knew how it had started. Had it been that the sirens had taken one too many humans for prey? Had the humans begun to exterminate the creatures they saw as a threat? It no longer mattered. All that anybody, land or sea dwelling, could care about now was that their side won the war. At least, this was the mentality of the female swimming through the undersea complex, searching for her sons.

"Herakles? Loukas?"

"Good morning mama," greeted Herakles, the older of the two, emerging from where he had been napping against a rock.

"Is everything alright?" Asked the younger, Loukas, entering the coral with a fish in his hands, freshly killed. Helene, the mother of the two, sighed in relief.

"I just wanted to be sure that the two of you weren't planning to go near any beaches anytime in the next week," she explained.

"No, I wasn't… Why?" Loukas replied, looking to his brother to back him up. Herakles merely nodded.

"The humans have set nets out to trap us again. It looks like they intend to destroy our numbers… We must stay away from the beach until they give up with their strategy. Then we counter-attack," she detailed. "Can you manage that?" The two mermen nodded.

"Good…" She smiled. "Now… if anything happens, come and see me. I'll be hunting the other side of the reef."

Herakles waved after her as she left.

"Bye mama…"

Unknown to Herakles, the masked eyes of his rival watched him from the seaweed.

'Whenever did Mei get so tall?' Kiku wondered in his head, watching his sister and brother set out the large, gaping nets along the seafront. The girl, roughly 13, with long brown hair and shining dark eyes, held up the end of the net with ease, while Li pinned it to the beach with large wooden stakes, his darker eyes betraying no emotion. Just like Kiku's own. _Just like their father's…_

"Hey, Kiku, we like, need more stakes over here," Li complained, causing the older sibling to be spurred from his thoughts, heading towards his siblings with the bag of stakes.

"Thank you nii-san," Mei smiled, while Li only nodded, picking up the stakes and getting back to work.

"They'll like, be in for it this year…" He mused, and Kiku's eyes widened. That was exactly what their father would have said!

Kiku wasn't even sure whether he agreed with this yearly 'cull'. In his opinion, the Merpeople only attacked humans because humans attacked them. He had seen how peaceful and kind the sea could be. He believed that it was humans who were destroying that. But his father had never agreed. And now the same warped ideas that everyone else followed were imprinted on his siblings.

"Hey, like, how about this?" Li asked, standing up and looking over the progress they had made.

"It looks great!" Mei assured "We'll be safe again this year…"

'Safe?' Kiku thought, 'why would she think that we need the nets just to be safe?'

"Hey!" Came a voice from the head of the beach, and Kiku looked around to see his cousin Yong Soo heading towards them, with what looked like a bear trap in his arms. Kiku sighed: the 17 year old could be eccentric sometimes.

"Like, what do you have there?" Li asked, which set Yong Soo off into a torrent of speaking.

"Well, me and Kyung Soo were over at the edge of town, and we saw a hunter with these trap like things, and I thought that they would be a perfect way of keeping us safe! If, like, the Merpeople miss the nets," he explained, and was about to speak again before Mei spoke up.

"That's cruel! You can't do that!" She exclaimed, but the teen wasn't listening, instead wading into the water, setting the trap in the deeper water, up to about his waist.

"Yong Soo! Maiming a creature does not make you a hero! I know we have to cull these things, but we should be humane!" Mei protested.

"Nah, it'll be fine… Right, Kiku?" Yong Soo turned to the oldest for support.

"Yeah, like, Kiku, tell her," Li seconded.

"…I agree with Mei," Kiku answered, making the two boys' mouths drop, and Mei's smile light up.

"Whatever. Only because she's your favourite," Yong Soo dismissed. "Anyway, I'm going to get more of those traps, so see ya around!" He exclaimed, running off back up the beach.

"Like, bye," Li called after him.

"As for us…" Kiku turned to his siblings, "we should return home. It's beginning to get a little dark; I didn't notice we'd been out all day."

"Nah, I'm going to like, stay and help Yong Soo with his trap-setting," Li replied, and Mei didn't seem to like that answer.

"Yao-ge is going to give you hell," she frowned.

"Let him. I'd like to see what he would do." He shrugged.

"You're not putting out any more traps," Kiku decided, not wanting such a cruel method to be used. "The two of you need to clear up Yong Soo's mess and come home." And with that, he took Mei and left.

Herakles swam further away from the coral, heading towards the dolphins he saw in the distance, certain that they were his friends. Before he could reach them though, the creatures took flight, disappearing from the scene as fast as they could. Herakles was confused; why would they flee like that? Something must have scared them.

"Hehehe… Hey, Jerkules! Hope you don't mind that I frightened off your pets," came a voice from the rocks nearby, and Herakles turned around to see Sadik, his greatest rival, relaxing against the formation, sneering at the other.

"They're not pets, Sadik… they're my friends," Herakles replied, defiant.

"Yeah, right. Only weak little merlings do things like count dumb sea creatures as their friends and obey every single word their precious mama tells 'em," Sadik retorted.

"Shut up…" Herakles growled lowly, "you don't even know what you're talking about…Jerk."

"Oh yeah?" Sadik snarled, "well, real mermen take risks! For example, they ain't afraid to swim close to the shoreline, even when the humans have nets out!"

"Mermen who swim close to the shore end up dead," Herakles replied, his face stony.

"Too bad," Sadik shrugged. "I guess yer content to just stay home and listen to mama. How lame, Herakles…"

He swam a little away from Herakles before speaking again. "I was going to make a wager with you, but if you're this lame, then I really shouldn't bother, I suppose."

"What kind of wager would a jerk like you make anyway?" Herakles asked, suspicious.

"Well, I was by the shore earlier, and I just so happened to notice yer brother's dagger lying in the sediment…" Sadik started.

"You stole it!" Herakles accused.

"I didn't take anything!" Sadik placed his hands up in defence. "I swear, I just found tha thing! Although… I do have it now…" He took the tool out from the bag he had been holding it in.

"Give it back. Now," Herakles threatened.

"Heh… Here's my wager, brat. Ya want it, ya gotta get me first," Sadik laughed, swimming off as fast as he could.

"Come back here!" Herakles yelled after him, giving chase.

"Hey, like, Kasem, this is completely out of order. Seriously, like, put me down already," Li complained, being carried back through the threshold of the house.

"Too bad, you should have just come home when you were told," the young man with the omnipresent smile chucked, placing Li down in the dining room, where Mei looked over at him with a smirk on her face.

"Welcome back Li."

"Aiyah, you should have been home ages ago! I told you to be back by sunset!" Yao scolded, dishing food out for the siblings.

"Yong Soo didn't get back by sunset…" Li complained.

"Oh, he did. I made sure he did," Yong Soo's twin ominously declared from his place in the doorway.

"Ow! Yao! Hue hit me with her paddle again!" Yong Soo shouted from upstairs. "This is turning into the worst day ever! Why does everyone want to beat me up?"

"Jerk…" 16-year old Hue complained, walking into the room from where she had been beating Yong Soo up.

In the kitchen, Kiku, as the second eldest sibling, was already washing up the utensils he and Yao had used to make the dinner, the two men having eaten earlier. Yao was 21 and split his time between looking after his younger siblings, teaching other people in the town to cook, and babysitting other people's children. Kiku, at 19, was already his second in command, and the one everyone turned to when Yao wasn't around. His decisions were always final though, and it was impossible to try to ask Kiku to overturn anything Yao had decreed.

As he moved to place the pans away within the cupboard of the modest kitchen space, Kiku's ears picked up on shouting from upstairs, and seconds later, Kasem entered the kitchen, his face looking slightly pale.

"Kiku… Did Yong Soo really try to catch the Merpeople with bear traps?" He asked.

"He wanted to… But I told him to give up on that plan," the older stated, and Kasem seemed to relax a little at this.

"Good… I mean… I know we need them dead, but that doesn't mean we have to be cruel about it," he discussed, returning to his usual smiley self as he progressed through his sentence.

"Kiku!" Yao called from the dining room at that point, and Kasem slipped away as Kiku returned to his older brother.

"Kiku, it's time to go," Yao told him once he reached him, "you know what you need to do."

Kiku nodded mutely, taking one of the daggers the family owned, and heading towards the door. He always hated this time of year, because he was expected to take life. As years went by, people were becoming more and more nonchalant about it, and he hated that too. He had never actually killed before, due to the zealous nature of his neighbours, but he had to be prepared to. And so, Kiku headed into the night.

Herakles swam faster and faster through the ocean, trying his hardest to catch up to Sadik. His rival was constantly in his vision, and he seemed to be gaining on him. As he caught up to the other though, he failed to notice how close he was getting to the shore nearby. Sadik sneered as he got ever closer, leading Herakles right into the danger zone, where the humans had set up various traps and nets. Sadik avoided them all with ease, having already taken the time to watch a lot of the more sophisticated traps being set up, and being too smart to just fall into the cruder ones. Herakles on the other hand, had no idea of what was waiting for him, and unknowingly found his way right into danger. As he swam, he hit against a wire so thin that it was practically invisible, floating in the water. The wire broke, triggering a pulley which fired an arrow towards the merman. Herakles heard the sound of the arrow firing, and swerved away from the danger, but this action caused him to brush against the seabed, triggering another of the traps laid out for him. Herakles winced as the bear trap sliced at the skin on his arm, causing blood to diffuse from the wound and out into the sea in a wisp of red. Wincing at the seawater irritating the gash and trying to remove the device before it could do more damage, Herakles floundered, one of his tail fins getting caught in netting laid out nearby. Herakles eventually managed to get his arm free but by this point, he was completely snared in the net, and the more he struggled, the more the rope tangled into his tail, cutting into the flesh. Eventually, Herakles stopped trying to escape, and lay exhausted in the water as the tide began to flow out around him. Over the other side of the area, Sadik swam home, with guilt in his heart, believing that he had gone too far.


	2. Chapter 2

To clarify, when Kiku's talking about his house, the floor numbers start at 0, meaning that the ground floor (or the floor at ground level) is floor 0 and the floor above floor 1. I am aware that not all countries do it this way.

* * *

"Hey! No fair! I'm the one who killed it!"

"I want those scales! They look so pretty!"

"You can't just take that much meat! Let me have some!"

Kiku scowled at the sounds of the townspeople fighting over their kill. In his opinion, it was completely barbaric. He paid no mind to them as he walked further down the beach, completely out of their sight. He wasn't expecting to find anything in the nets he had set out, so was incredibly surprised to find a shape within the fabric as he began to draw near. Kiku's breath caught; he didn't know whether he could actually kill one of those creatures. He crept closer, noticed the blood from where the merman had caught himself on the net, tearing his fins as he tried to escape… And from a gash across his arm. He swallowed. He couldn't kill it. The merman looked up hazily at him, too weak to even consider his presence properly, and Kiku knew for sure that he couldn't kill the creature. He crouched down to the merman's level, and took in his appearance. Green eyes narrowed as the creature finally took him in, hissing harshly at him.

"It's okay… I won't hurt you," Kiku vowed, but it did little to affect the other's mood. Sighing, Kiku tried to think of a way he could help. His eyes travelled up the beach, to where the other townspeople were slaughtering other Merpeople. The man didn't want that to happen to this particular sea creature; he had an identity now, a face, which made him an individual that Kiku couldn't bring himself to destroy. With that made up in his mind, he set about freeing the merman, who soon began to struggle against him, believing he was going for the kill.

"I just want to free you," Kiku assured, using his knife to cut through the ropes binding the captive. Even when he was free though, the merman could not move from where he was, the damage to his tail too great. He looked up at Kiku fearfully. Kiku bit his lip in concentration, trying to think of something else to do. After a few seconds, the sound of shouting came closer, and he recognised that the rest of the town was on the move. He wasn't going to let them find this merman, so he summoned all his strength and picked up the male, carrying him to a place he knew was safe.

Herakles opened his eyes, looking around blearily. He could smell the blood of his brethren in the air, and knew that the hunt was well and truly on. He struggled against the binds that held him, recognising the net that was wrapped around his fins as a human trap. Unbeknownst to him, each time he tried to flail out of harm's way, the net dug deeper into his fins and tail, creating deep wounds that in themselves began to bleed. Losing his strength fast, Herakles laid back against the sand, and waited to die. It was then when he heard footsteps, and believed that his end was near. He looked hazily up into the face of his killer to find a young boy, brown eyes wavering with indecisiveness. His mind took the information in, but couldn't seem to process it properly. The boy crouched, and Herakles decided he had better do something, with or without his brain's permission. Reacting on instinct, he hissed at the human, who bizarrely started to comfort him; or at least, seemed to, until he brought out a knife, at which point Herakles's survival instinct came into full force, the merman struggling against the human as much as he could. The action only aggravated his wounds, and seemed to be pointless, as the human assured that he meant no harm, and that he would free him. He seemed to be true to his word, but Herakles was unsure why he would bother. As soon as he was free, the merman tried to escape straight away, but found that he was too injured to move. Expecting the human to kill him now, Herakles braced himself, but the human yet again took pity on him. The staring contest between them lasted only a few seconds, before the human picked him up, and Herakles found he couldn't stare any longer, feeling suddenly drowsy again. His eyes drooped, and he slept.

Kiku felt like he had no choice but to hide the merman somewhere safe. The only place that came to mind was a sea cave further around the beach. It was hard work carrying the heavy merman all that way, but Kiku was determined. After a while of walking, he reached the cave. The sea waves lapped at the shore within the cave itself, the dry entrance a hole in the rock of the cave formed by a storm a while ago. Heading for the water's edge, Kiku lowered the creature into the water, allowing the blue liquid to surround him. When the merman was completely submerged, he stood, looking back towards the town. His siblings would be wondering where he was, and to stay any longer would endanger the merman. So, he headed back towards his house.

"Kiku, aru… What happened?" Yao asked worriedly, noticing the blood that coated his brother's hands. Kiku looked down and then back up at Yao.

"Some of those bear traps were still in the water… It was a bloodbath," Kiku half-lied, glaring over at Yong Soo and Li.

"Oh for God's sake, we didn't like, actually use those things, we just skimmed pebbles all afternoon," Li complained, looking to his cousin to back him up.

"Yeah! We realised what we were doing when we noticed the other boys in town setting similar traps into the water… Those guys are such jerks, why would we want to be like them?" Yong Soo confirmed.

"Was it still that messy though? Are the other townspeople that inhumane?" Mei asked, looking over to her brother sadly.

"They're more than inhumane… They seemed to be harvesting Merpeople for their scales and meat rather than culling them as a necessity," Kiku explained.

"Aiyah… Why do something like that? I can't see why we can't just exterminate the creatures humanely," Yao contributed, and the general feeling among Kiku's family was one of agreement.

Kiku himself though, couldn't help but think back to the merman he had rescued from near certain death, and wonder over whether it was right to kill them at all.

Loukas picked his dagger out of the sand, only metres from where his brother napped every single day. How had one of them not spotted it before? He sighed and headed back to his mother, to tell her that he still couldn't find Herakles.

Sadik watched the scene and frowned. He had thrown away that damn thing, sure, but how was he now meant to go in there and tell that family that Herakles wasn't coming back? He knew he would be in trouble this time.

"Is there still no sign of him? None at all?" Helene asked, sounding worried for her eldest son's safety.

"I… I haven't found him in any of his regular nap-spots," Loukas admitted, looking strained.

"Where is Sadik?" Helene remembered. "Often when Herakles isn't napping, he's scrapping with that jerk."

It was at that point that Loukas noticed Sadik was close by indeed, seemingly waiting to say something. "Where's Herakles?" He asked.

"I don't know," Sadik answered defiantly.

"What did you do?" Helene hissed, instinct telling her that Sadik knew more than he was letting on.

"Hey, it's not my fault he swam too close to the shore!" Sadik threw his hands up in defence.

"….He did what?" Helene scowled, looking hellishly angry at Sadik already.

"Look, it wasn't my fault, I didn't know he was gonna get caught in one of those nets!" Sadik defended himself weakly.

"You still lured him to the coast though," the female accused.

"We were only havin' a race, I didn't mean fer it to go this far…" Sadik pouted, hoping that Helene would let it drop. Unfortunately for him, she was far too maternal to let such a thing go.

"You shouldn't have raced him close to the shore! What were you thinking?! You knew the nets went out today!" She yelled, slapping Sadik across the face, before leaving the safety of the coral, swimming towards the coast swiftly, fear gripping her from her hair down to the end of her tail.

'Herakles…'

Herakles woke again to find himself in the water, sheltered within a small sea cave. A look towards the mouth of the cave showed that the hole in the rock was almost too small for him to fit through; it would be a tight squeeze for him to escape. On the other side, the hole was larger, but only accessible by land. It was then that Herakles realised that thoughts of escape were fruitless anyway; the damage to his tail was still not healed, and his arm, although better than his tail, was still injured. Herakles therefore lay still in the water, trying to rest so he could recover- mermen were able to heal faster than humans, after all. As he tried his best to stay as still as possible, his thoughts travelled to the human that had not killed him. Thinking it over with a rational mind, Herakles realised that the man had clearly been unwilling to take life, and as far as he could tell, had saved him. After all, who else on the shore could have brought him here? Herakles had thought that everyone on the land hated merpeople. It seemed like there was one exception. Herakles was instantly intrigued; he wanted to know more about this human.

Kiku left the house early the next morning, armed with only a bucket of fish. He knew in reality he should bring at least some kind of weapon to defend himself with, but the merman was still injured, so surely he posed far less of a threat? That was the reasoning Kiku carried with him at least, as he walked slowly towards the sea cave, bathed in the morning light that sparkled off the water. For a long time, he forgot about the events of the previous day, before he noticed the torn netting lying on the beach. He pulled the woven strips away from the high tide line, to the point where they would never again cause a threat to life, and carried on his way.

As he entered the cave, Kiku noticed the creature still sleeping against a rock, looking serene and at peace. He wondered whether or not to creep closer, leave the fish and run, but before he got a chance, the merman awoke, looking over at him sleepily.

"…?" He looked confused, seemingly a little on edge.

"I brought you food…" Kiku replied, offering the fish forward tentatively.

The merman looked suspicious, and Kiku drew closer, kneeling to his level and placing the bucket at his feet. He took out a fish from the bucket and offered it forwards.

"Is it poisoned?" The merman asked, sounding more curious than mad, but Kiku still looked shocked. He knew merpeople could charm humans with singing, but he was under the impression that other than that they communicated with guttural sounds alone. It seemed that he was wrong.

"Ah, n-no, although, it is not cooked," he replied, now convinced more than ever that he could not do harm to a being that was proving to be increasingly sentient. The killing of these things seemed to be more like a war than an actual cull.

"Cooked?" The merman repeated, unsure as of how to use the word.

"Ah, yes… It is when we heat up food to kill the bacteria inside it," Kiku tried to explain.

"Oh… We do not cook things." The creature shrugged, swimming forwards from the rock and towards the sand Kiku kneeled at, taking the fish without another word and eating it raw, even including the head and eyes, until there was nothing left but bare bones.

"Ah, we do not eat the heads either…" Kiku stated, staring at the merman with wide eyes.

"What is your name?" The merman asked, changing the subject completely.

"I am Kiku. Kiku Honda," the man replied, thinking the question odd, but only being able to reply politely in line with the etiquette his mother had taught him.

"Herakles," the creature merely stated in reply.

"Herakles…" Kiku tested the name, a little surprised that the merman even had one.

"Yeah…" Herakles nodded.

"Do you live far away?" Kiku asked, wondering how the merman would ever make his way back to sea. Herakles shook his head.

"I only live in the coral just beyond the ocean shelf here," he explained, and Kiku was surprised. As a child, he had sailed out to that coral, had fished in the crystalline waters. He had never seen merpeople there before.

"Ah, so you're not all that far away from home then," Kiku confirmed.

"What about you? Do you live around here?" Herakles asked.

"I live in the town up on the cliff… My house is closer to the beach than most, so I suppose I live very close," Kiku described.

"Ah, I see… Can you see the sea from where you live?" Herakles asked.

"I can," the human replied. "Only on the 1st floor of the house though, the view from the ground floor is blocked out by the other houses."

"Floors? I thought you humans had only one floor and that was the earth." Herakles looked confused yet again.

"Ah, yes, well, we build artificial floors in the air that we then climb up to… So that we can build our houses upwards as well as across," Kiku explained.

"Oh… You cannot just swim upwards like we can," Herakles remembered. "That makes sense then… Our kind can just dig into rock formations or pieces of coral higher up and then swim to reach the new space, if we want to expand our living area."

Kiku nodded, wondering how exactly he had managed to strike up conversation with this creature he was meant to hate. Perhaps it was just curiosity. He certainly felt like he understood Herakles a little more now. And perhaps that was right: he had saved his life after all.

"Kiku! Are you down here?" A voice suddenly emanated throughout the cave, and Kiku leapt to his feet.

"Ah! I should go… You can keep the fish," he panicked, running from the space, calling out to Mei, who was searching the nearby beach for her brother, after noticing his absence.

"I wonder… Who that is…" Herakles wondered, leaning against the sand thoughtfully.

"Kiku, what were you doing in there?" Mei asked as they walked back towards the town later that day.

"Oh, I was just searching for crabs," Kiku lied.

"Really? I thought I had heard a voice," she continued, suspicious.

"No… I was alone. It was probably just an echo." Another lie.

"If you say so…" Mei didn't look convinced.

"Why did you come out here?" Kiku questioned, moving the focus from him temporarily.

"You've been gone all day with no explanation, how could I not?" Mei shot back.

"Oh, I'm sorry…" Kiku hadn't realised that he was out that long. But of course, he couldn't give a real explanation- his family would probably kill Herakles if they found him.

"Don't worry about it; I'm sure you were having fun at the time… So I guess time just flew by for you, right?"

Kiku looked over at her questioningly, but didn't protest… It worked as an alibi.

"Did you find him?" Loukas asked, looking towards his mother as she made her way back towards the rest of the pod.

"I only found this…" She mused, holding up a shred of bloodstained netting.

Loukas grimaced and looked down sadly.

"I will find whoever did this," Helene continued, "….And I will destroy them"

"Mama…" Loukas simply hugged his mother, not really knowing what else to do.

"It seems as though the other people in the town have finally calmed down," Yao commented that night, as he and Kiku worked together on dinner.

"Yes… Although, they were quite vicious at their worst," Kiku stated, trying not to let his brother know his discomfort. But Yao knew him too well.

"Kiku… You know, I could have gone instead of you. Maybe I will next time. You shouldn't have to witness that," he offered, placing a tender hand on the other's shoulder.

"I am fine Yao." Kiku wouldn't have wanted Yao to go instead: Yao could well have killed Herakles, and it wasn't like he deserved to witness the bloodbath either.

"Are you sure? You seem to be a little spaced out tonight," Yao continued, sceptical.

"It's nothing…" Kiku assured.

"…You know you can always tell me if something's wrong, right?" Yao considered, with a sincere, caring tone.

"I know, Yao… But I really am fine," Kiku reassured, sending a tiny smile his brother's way.

Yao nodded, and they returned to cooking.


	3. Chapter 3

"Good morning," Kiku greeted as he walked through the entrance to the cave the next morning, gazing over the water where Herakles was chewing on another of the fish from the bucket. He wasn't entirely sure why he was risking coming back here after his siblings seemed so suspicious yesterday, but something in him felt drawn to this place somehow.

"Who was that person who called for you yesterday?" Herakles immediately asked, not even having looked up at Kiku yet.

"Ah… That was just my little sister," Kiku stated, sitting on the sand.

"Odd… I thought you were a man." Herakles seemed generally confused, looking over Kiku quizzically.

"E-excuse me?!"

"Where I live, I only have a brother, and all the mermen I know only have brothers too. Some of the mermaids have sisters, but they have no brothers. So I thought only females had sisters," Herakles continued.

"Oh… Well, it doesn't work that way here on the land. I have 3 brothers and 2 sisters…. And my cousins as well," Kiku explained.

"Oh, I see… I only have the one brother, and my mama as well," Herakles mused.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to your father?" Kiku ventured.

Herakles shrugged. "He left and joined another pod. He never did seem to get on with my mama entirely well, and one day they just had a big fight and he left," he told Kiku.

"Oh, I'm sorry…" Kiku felt bad for bringing it up, but Herakles seemed not to care.

"Don't be… It's fine. Besides… What about your parents? You don't mention them at all…"

"Oh…" Kiku looked down at the sand as he spoke. "My father was lost at sea… And my mother was always quite ill, and one day disease just… Took her."

Herakles seemed a little shocked. 'Lost at sea' usually only meant one thing…

"It seems like you have more of a reason to be upset than me," he shrugged, looking over at Kiku concernedly.

"Really? I can barely remember my parents, so it doesn't really bother me," Kiku stated noncommittally.

"Who raised you then?" Herakles asked, intrigued.

"Mostly my older brother… I helped out as soon as I was old enough to, and we carried on like that."

"You're not the oldest?"

"I'm the second oldest."

"Oh…" Herakles seemed to understand better now. "I'm the oldest out of me and my brother, but mama always took care of us, so I've never really had to do that sort of thing… I suppose I help with the hunting, but I've never had to care for a smaller member of my family before…You are quite amazing for managing that," he complimented, smiling lazily at Kiku.

"Well, it's not too hard, really…" Kiku blushed at the compliment. "Ah, how old are you, Herakles?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

"How old…?" Herakles queried, again confused.

"Yes…" Kiku confirmed, trying to find another way of phrasing it. "I was born 19 years ago. What about you Herakles?"

"Ah…" Herakles looked down. "I'm not sure. I don't know what a year is… I'm an adult, if that means anything."

Kiku nodded. "Okay, so am I… We seem to be similar in age at least…"

Herakles nodded, seemingly thinking it over a little. "Yes… it's a little of a coincidence," he decided.

Kiku seemed not to agree. "Really? We don't even know how old you actually are. We could be completely wrong to assume we're similar in age."

"Still… We managed to meet and speak with each other… I'm glad that we got the chance to understand each other a little more. I've never spoken to any humans before," Herakles argued.

"Yes, I can agree with that," Kiku agreed.

The sunset of another day shone through the cave's mouth, and Kiku stood from his place in the sand. "I should be getting home, before my siblings become suspicious…" He declared.

"Okay…" Herakles nodded, part of him not wanting the human to go. Perhaps he was beginning to get a little… Used to his presence.

"I'll come back tomorrow," Kiku decided, not wanting to leave either, for reasons he could not comprehend.

Herakles nodded in agreement as Kiku walked back towards his home.

"Like, Kiku's been gone all day twice in a row now," Li commented that night over dinner.

"I wonder what he's been up to…" Hue muttered, looking to Kiku with only slight interest in her eyes.

"Ah… I haven't been doing anything… I was just exploring the beach." Kiku tried to defend himself, but his siblings didn't look convinced. Yao however, stood in to help him.

"He was just checking to see if any merpeople are still floundering on the beach so he can put them out of their misery… Right Kiku?" He stated, fixing Kiku with a look that commanded him to play along.

"Ah… Yes, that's what I was doing," Kiku confirmed, and most of his family accepted this… Except for Yong Soo.

"Aww, come on Kiku! Why didn't you take me with you? I'm old enough to look death in the face!" He protested.

"Aiyah! Yong Soo, it's bad enough that one of us needs to carry out such a grizzly task! Don't wish it upon yourself!" Yao interjected.

"You should just be happy that you're spared from such things…" Kiku decided, thinking over the last few days. Yong Soo wouldn't have reacted the same way as him. He might have panicked even. The boy had no idea what he was getting himself into most of the time he said anything. Kiku didn't want to see his cousin hurt any more than he wanted to see Herakles dead. Both could have happened had Yong Soo gone out instead of him that night.

"Yeah, I wouldn't like to be out there watching things die all the time," Mei seconded, probably just going along with Kiku as usual.

"Kiku's right," Yao destroyed any chance of anybody arguing. "We all do our part in different ways. Most of us by staying home, keeping out of trouble, and taking care of things… Such as the dishes."

And so, Yao managed to get all of the chores for the evening completed by the younger siblings, while he followed Kiku upstairs in an attempt to talk to him more.

"You know, you can fool them, but you can't fool me," he started, as soon as Kiku reached the relative safety of his room, and the younger's blood ran cold. Had he really been found out so easily?

"I can't?" He repeated, trying to play innocent as long as he could.

"You can't," Yao emphasised. "It's obvious… Kiku must have a secret girlfriend!" He announced, spreading his hands out as if to make it clear his point was plain to see. Kiku was speechless, unsure of how to react. Part of him wanted to deny it; another saw it as yet another chance to slip away from the truth. He hated lying, but right now Kiku had no choice. Yao made the choice for him however.

"It's okay," he commented, seeing Kiku's red face. "I promise not to tell anyone." Kiku breathed a sigh of relief, sitting on his bed. "But…" Yao continued. "I hope you still realise you can tell me. We should be able to tell each other anything, it's not that embarrassing, is it?" He asked, tilting his head towards Kiku.

"Oh… Of course it isn't… This is all just so new to me…" Kiku stuttered, not entirely lying. He had, after all, never saved a merman's life before, let alone began to form some sort of rapport with one.

"Good! Then, next time something like this happens, you know you don't have to hide it from me." Yao smiled widely, leaving the room to let his brother have his personal thoughts.

"Ah… They grow up so quickly…" He mused as he headed back to check on the rest of the family, leaving Kiku on the bed, stunned that that had worked. Smiling a little, Kiku stood and moved to the window in his room, looking out over the town and towards the sea, wondering about Herakles and hoping he was still doing well.

"You came back," Herakles smiled, as Kiku entered the cave the next morning.

"Of course… I did promise you I would, after all," Kiku stated, sitting on the sand and watching Herakles eating at the fish at the bottom of the bucket.

"You did…" Herakles mused, half of a fish still in his hands.

"What does that taste like?" Kiku asked, curious.

"Umm… Like fish?" I don't really know how to describe it to you," Herakles puzzled.

"Hmm… But, not all fish is the same. Not even all raw fish. Tuna sushi tastes entirely different to say, herring," Kiku continued.

"Sushi?" Herakles was confused by the alien term.

"Ah… It is a food eaten in my culture… Mostly fish and rice."

"I am afraid I've never seen rice… But the fish part sounds nice," Herakles smiled a little. "And so, I suppose different fish does taste rather different… but… I still cannot explain to you what the taste is to me… As you might not taste the same thing if you were to eat it."

"Ah, I suppose…" Kiku agreed, slightly reluctantly.

"It is odd… How could I ever be sure that you see what I see, taste what I taste, feel what I feel? Who is to say that you are not sensing the world correctly, and I am simply deluding myself? What if all of this is fake and we're living in some nightmare reality, and kidding ourselves into believing this made up world is real, just because it spares us from the truth?" Herakles began to philosophise at quite a rate, and Kiku was finding it difficult to keep up.

"I suppose so Herakles…" He offered. "But surely, this all feels too real to be fake?"

"How do we know? If this is the only reality we remember, it could be that we are mistaking this for the feeling of things being real," Herakles countered.

"Surely everything around us is too complex to be imagined…" Kiku suggested.

"Perhaps… but then, does that mean that the world is so much more bizarre than imagination? Even the imagination of a being far more powerful than ourselves?"

"Are you saying that we're just the imagination of some god-like being?"

"Can you prove we aren't, Kiku?"

"No…" Kiku looked down at the sand. This was making his head hurt.

"Even if everything seems real and we seem to be in control… Thinking about alternate theories for who we are and why we are here… It's fascinating." Herakles smiled.

Kiku nodded. Even if it was giving him a headache, he couldn't deny it was an interesting and stimulating conversation.

"Hmm… What about you, Kiku?" Herakles suddenly asked, wondering what Kiku thought about life and philosophy in general.

"All of this is making my head hurt," Kiku confessed. "I do wonder though… If the fact that we are able to act for ourselves means that we cannot simply be in someone else's imagination."

"Well…" Herakles thought it over. "Perhaps free will itself is an illusion… Like the idea of destiny… the thought that we might not actually have ever determined anything for ourselves. Our meeting, too, could just be fated to occur…"

"Perhaps…" Kiku mused. "Do you think we were meant to meet like this, Herakles?"

"Even if we hadn't met under these particular circumstances, maybe we would have still met another time, somewhere," Herakles reasoned.

"Maybe." Kiku nodded, as Herakles rolled onto his back, floating in the water.

"Interesting… I wonder what reality truly is…" The merman mused, quickly falling deep into thought. Kiku watched, and wondered whether he should try to break Herakles from his thoughts.

He soon found he didn't need to, as a small meowing caused Herakles to break from his reprieve.

"What is this?" He asked, looking at the cat which had slunk up beside Kiku.

"Ah, it is a cat," Kiku explained, as the cat mewed happily and crept up to Herakles who petted it, amazed.

"Cats… Are cute," Herakles decided, enjoying the feel of fur beneath his hand.

Kiku nodded. "They are," he agreed, smiling a little.

"Hmm… Kiku… I have enjoyed spending time with you like this," Herakles simply stated. "I never realised humans were so interesting."

Kiku nodded. "I have enjoyed these days as well."

Herakles looked towards the opening of the cave and noticed the setting sun shining through.

"It looks like it's about the time you usually go," he noted.

Kiku followed Herakles's gaze and nodded. "It is… I will see you tomorrow, Herakles."

"Goodbye, Kiku, see you soon." Herakles let out a smile as the human rose and exited the cave.

Herakles woke in the middle of the night, feeling hungry. He reached for the bucket of fish to find there was only one left. As he chewed on it, he mused over whether or not it would be rude to ask Kiku tomorrow if there were any more. At the same time, he had to admit he felt healed. He hadn't ever really considered his healing wounds before, but now he seemed to be well enough to leave. Perhaps he should just go and hunt tomorrow morning before Kiku appeared? It seemed to Herakles to be the best option, so he didn't end up disappointing the human, who was fast becoming like a friend to him. However, the voice that emanated through the cave at that moment changed everything.

"Herakles?"

"Loukas?" The merman asked the darkness, looking around for the source of his brother's voice.

"Over here!" The sound of his sibling came from the direction of the smaller opening in the cave, the one partially submerged by the water. Herakles swam over to it, smiling at the face of his brother awaiting him.

"What are you doing here? H-how did you get in there? I thought you were dead," his brother stated, reaching out for him through the hole.

"I was rescued… A human brought me here, into this cave," Herakles tried to explain.

"How can you be sure they were rescuing you?" Loukas asked, surprised, "you know what humans are like, they probably want to keep you locked up here to kill later."

"Then why would they let me return to health? Why feed me? Why come every day to speak to me?" Herakles couldn't understand what Loukas meant. Kiku was his friend… Wasn't he?  
"You could be nothing more than a pet or even a slave to them! They might want to feed you up and then kill you and eat you. There are many stories of humans doing that to creatures on the land! Come on, let's get you out of there now!" Loukas argued, leaving no room for discussion.

"Okay…" Herakles reluctantly agreed, gripping his brother's hands as the younger of the two heaved his older brother out from the small hole in the cave.

"Mama will be so happy to see you…" Loukas smiled, beginning to lead Herakles home.

"Herakles!" Helene called as she saw her son returning to her, gripping his shoulders and holding him close, not wanting to let go. "What happened to you?"

"Mama…" Herakles started, "I got stuck in a sea cave. I was injured… But I'm fine now."

"Did the humans trap you?" His mother asked, suspicious. Herakles refused to answer, but his brother responded for him.

"They did. He said he had been carried there by some human."  
Helene nodded, turning to both of her sons. "This only emphasises that we need to get revenge on the humans now. Come on, both of you. I'll show you how to fight back," she stated, swimming off with both of her sons following behind her.

Kiku looked out over the emptiness of the sea cave, slightly confused as to where Herakles could have gone. He had been beginning to consider Herakles a friend… but now, the other had just disappeared, when he promised they would meet again the next day. Part of him wondered whether Herakles was hungry and had gone hunting for more fish. Thinking that it could all have been a misunderstanding, Kiku sat on the sand… And waited.


	4. Chapter 4

I like it when the Far-East Brothers act like... Well, brothers, so in AUs like this one without real-life issues to get in the way, expect a lot of Yao as the doting/protective older brother, and Kiku as the appreciative (if exasperated) younger brother

* * *

By the time Kiku gave up and went home, it was already dark, and Kiku had given up hope. Demoralised, he didn't even look up at Yao as he stared concernedly at him from the doorway of the kitchen, heading straight to his room once he had reached the house. Simple white sheets seemed all too inviting, as Kiku flopped onto his bed, disappointment flooding through him. He closed his eyes, drifting towards sleep, and barely noticed the knock at the door that Yao made to herald his entering (of course, he didn't pause at the door aside from that, no matter what Kiku had to say about it).

"Kiku? Is something wrong?" He asked, brown eyes searching Kiku for any signs of distress, taking in his form, curled up on the bed, looking weary and crumpled, with an expertise that came from years of taking care of others. Kiku slowly turned his head to look over at Yao.

"Yao…" He merely stated, looking a little confused.

"You know you can tell me, aru… What's wrong?" His older brother asked, walking straight across from the door to the bed where Kiku lay in the middle of the room, and sitting next to the younger, reaching out to lay a hand on his shoulder.

"I was supposed to meet one of my friends today… But he didn't turn up and left me waiting for the whole day," Kiku mentioned, sighing a little at the end of his sentence.

"Oh… Well… Sometimes, people find that important things come up, aru. He probably didn't mean to upset you, he may have just had to deal with something he needed to do, and couldn't find a way to contact you…" Yao mentioned

Kiku nodded. It did make sense: he wasn't even sure whether Herakles was literate after all, and the only way he could ever have contacted Kiku was by leaving a message in the sand. "I suppose you could be right Yao… I shouldn't assume it is his fault just because he didn't tell me he couldn't make it," he agreed, starting to look a little less glum.

Yao nodded enthusiastically. "Exactly, aru! He'll probably turn up tomorrow and apologise, and say exactly what had happened that had left him unable to meet you," he assured.

"I hope so…" Kiku merely stated, still not entirely satisfied, but generally less upset than he had been previously.

"I'm certain of it," Yao stated confidently. Kiku nodded, and his brother stood and began to move towards the door before Kiku stopped him.

"Wait…"

Yao turned around again, smiling a little. "Yes Kiku?"

"Thank you," Kiku admitted, blushing a little.

Yao practically beamed as he exited the room.

Herakles swam powerfully towards the meeting place his mother had described to him. The pod had decided to begin their planning for 'revenge' away from their home in the coral, to prevent the humans from being able to destroy their home, if they were somehow watching. Herakles doubted that they were, but he didn't argue with his mother's judgement. At the moment, he was swimming through what appeared to be dull green seaweed, the algae wrapping around his tail and holding him up just a little. Herakles wasn't fazed though; he knew that the seaweed would break before it could snare him to any serious degree. Sure enough, the long green strings fell from around Herakles's tail before long, and he carried on without hindrance. His brown hair fanned out behind him, not causing him much difficulty. It could sometimes be annoying, if it managed to get into his eyes, but that tended only to happen when Herakles tried to swim against the current. At the moment, he swam easily, the bubbles in the water flowing past brown hair and green eyes, before breaking against the rugged shoulders, toned chest, and long, blue tail that together made up Herakles's body. The merman paid them no heed as he drew closer to the agreed meting spot: a clearing in the seaweed, where bare rocks jutted up out of the sand, littering the whole area. Herakles swam into the clearing and looked around, noticed there was nobody else there at that point, and settled down against a rock to rest.

"Hey… Um, Herakles…" Sadik started, swimming up to where the other merman was resting, the bright, flashy red of Sadik's own tail twitching a little as he came to rest.

"What is it, jerk?" Herakles asked, instantly on edge.

"Look… I…" Sadik rubbed at the back of his neck absentmindedly, his webbed hand arching over the whole expanse. "I just wanted ta say… That I didn't really mean to get ya captured or anythin' like that… I mean, it was all a bit of fun, right?" He seemed to be deliberately avoiding apologising directly, but Herakles understood what his rival meant well enough.

"I'm not going to fight with you over it Sadik… Apology accepted, I suppose," he shrugged, not really in the mood to argue with Sadik at the moment. Besides, if he hadn't gotten stuck on that beach that day, he would never have met Kiku, who Herakles now considered a friend. Sadik noticed Herakles's apparent change in attitude.

"Hey… That's it? Yer not even going to be all snarky?" He asked, surprised.

"I'm in a good mood today…" Herakles stated, thinking back to Kiku. Wait… Kiku had said he would be back to meet him tomorrow! And that was yesterday! Herakles's heart leapt as he pictured Kiku, sitting there all alone.

"Are ya kidding me? Are ya even the same brat?" Sadik asked, looking Herakles over even as he wondered whether Kiku would now hate him. Surely, if he could find him, and explain? But he would have to do so after the meeting.

"Herakles… It's good to see you recovered and here so early," Helene smiled as she drew closer to the two, the faded green of her magnificent tail still looking beautiful despite her age.

"Mama… Of course… I should be here, after all," Herakles replied, wanting to know what his mama planned for the humans. Even if meeting Kiku had given him doubts about whether all humans were evil, he did know some were out to get him, and was hoping to gain some more insight into how to avoid getting captured. A few other merpeople within his pod started to arrive, as his mother spoke again.

"Yes… You have, after all, had experience first-hand in dealing with humans and in escaping from them… Your experiences could help the rest of us avoid capture, and fight back," she explained, still smiling at Herakles even as he seemed a little less jubilant, not knowing whether fighting back was really on his list of priorities.

"Yeah, not many of us can say we've escaped from the grasp of the humans," Loukas attested, swimming up behind his mother, the rich terracotta of his tail swaying a little behind him as he came to rest.

"Ah, I suppose that is true…" Herakles smiled, not really feeling all that special, but still happy that his family thought so much of him, even if he had done something no more remarkable than leaving a cave which he had been placed in by a man who did little else than turn up every day, talk to him and feed him fish.

Helene nodded, looking around the scattered rocks and bare sand that made up the clearing. "Well, it seems like everyone is here… Should we begin the meeting?" She decided, calling the other merpeople to attention.

Herakles, Sadik, and almost everyone else in earshot nodded, and so Helene began to speak loudly, projecting her voice to the gathered pod of merpeople.

"Alright, so we all already know why we're here."

A few members of the pod looked around at their family members, a little confused, and Helene sighed and began to explain again.

"The humans' major attack on us is finished for the year. Now we can counter-attack."

"But our charm no longer works on them… The humans have gotten too smart to fall for trickery. How are we supposed to seduce them, pull them under the water?" Came a voice from one of the young, female members of the pod, who was at the back of the gathering, her clearly pretty face completely curious.

"We shall have to use stealth from now on," Helene instructed. "We should wait to see a human out on their own, on a boat or swimming in the water or on one of those boards they use to ride the waves… Then, we alarm them with strength and speed, and drag them to their deaths."

Everyone gathered around nodded, understanding the tactic. Herakles though, wondered whether it was truly necessary. If they just left the humans alone, would they also stop fighting? The endless cycle of revenge could surely not go on forever.

Up on the surface, Kiku rowed his family's small dinghy out into the sea, heading for the patch of coral he knew lay beyond the usual limit for swimmers and surfers alike. Was Herakles right? Did merpeople really live there? Part of Kiku wanted to turn around; certainly any creature he met would be far less friendly than Herakles. He was making himself a target. He was putting himself in danger. But still he rowed on. Maybe it was intrigue.

Herakles yawned as the meeting drew to a close. His people had their plan for their revenge on the humans, and were now dispersing, some heading towards the coral that was their home while others headed to the beach to spy on the 'enemy'. Herakles decided to just head for the surface, wanting to find a rock to go nap on. What he noticed as he drew near though, made him instantly wary. The clear shape of a boat was visible, the oars of the vessel stretching down below the surface itself. Herakles wondered whether he should turn back, when he saw a rock close to the little boat that rose up out of the water. He could watch the human from there, and if it was a woman or a child, someone of little threat… he could sleep in peace.

Kiku looked over the side of the boat nervously, having just seen a shape in the water. Upon noticing the fins of a merman, he ducked into the hull of the boat, hoping he had not been noticed. So there really were merpeople living in the area… How had he not noticed them before? More importantly, what had he been thinking when he decided to come here? To his horror, when he peaked over the side of the boat, the figure was closer. He'd noticed him! Kiku's eyes fell upon the fishing equipment he'd borrowed from his brother on the proviso he was just going to see if the tuna were biting, and the harpoon Yao had made him take along. He didn't know if he could use it, even if his life depended on it. Herakles was like a friend to him, and he was a merman. He didn't even know if he could take a life in the first place. If he could make friends with Herakles, could he reason with any other merperson?

Kiku never had to wonder this, as a calm voice broke him out of his thoughts.

"Kiku? Is that you?"

"Herakles?" Kiku lifted his head from the boat and noticed Herakles was sitting on a rock, only a few metres away.

"What are you doing here?" Herakles asked, looking worried. "It's dangerous, you should return to the land…"

"I was only trying to fish," Kiku lied. "And I can take care of myself."

From his vantage point on the rock, Herakles could see the harpoon nestled in the bottom of the tiny boat. He shook his head at the raven-haired man in disbelief.

"That? You'd have no time to use that out here… My kind could have you in the water before you had time to reach for a weapon…" He commented, matter-of-factly.

Kiku's brown eyes widened, showing a rare glimpse of fear.

"I'm sorry…" He mouthed hoarsely, his mouth suddenly feeling dry. He really was in trouble, wasn't he?

"There's nothing to apologise for…" Herakles insisted. "But you have to get home now… I'll escort you back to the beach, my people are unlikely to bother you if they see me here," he continued, shifting his weight forwards a little against the jagged face of the rock.

"Okay…" Kiku felt he had no choice to agree.

"If you were trying to fish for food, I could help you hunt for fish, so you can get home quicker…" Herakles offered, and Kiku shook his head, guilty.

"I'm not really fishing… I came out here because I remembered what you said about merpeople living in the coral… I wanted to know if it was true," he admitted.

"You did?" Herakles pondered, scratching his cheek in puzzlement. "Why would you do that?"

Kiku shrugged. "You weren't there yesterday. I was curious whether you'd gone home."

"Oh…" Herakles sighed. "Sorry. My brother found me in that cave, and assumed I had been kidnapped. I had to go back to my mother to explain… But my brother told her his side of the story, and now she won't believe mine…"

Kiku nodded, understanding now why Herakles had had to leave. "Why didn't you leave a message though?" He asked, curious.

"I can't write in your language," Herakles simply replied. "There was no way you could have understood anything I would have written in the sand… I am sorry I left so abruptly though."

Kiku nodded. "It's okay Herakles."

"That said… You shouldn't have come all this way just to see me. I'll spend more time closer to the shore if it would stop you from putting yourself in danger like this," Herakles suggested, not wanting his friend to be hurt because of him. Kiku blushed a little, but still nodded.

"Alright then Herakles… Perhaps we should meet at the rocks by the sea cave then?" He continued.

"That sounds good…" Herakles nodded. "Should we head back to shore now?"

Kiku nodded, and Herakles leapt from his rock into the water, creating only a small splash due to the grace and ease of his movements. As he resurfaced, now soaked right through, he made a motion for Kiku to follow before starting to swim, close to the surface. Kiku followed in the boat, watching Herakles swim, noticing the muscles in his chest and arms move and stretch to accommodate his pace. Kiku couldn't help but admire Herakles's strength- he found it impossible to maintain muscles quite that large, although that might have been down to his size.

As Kiku got close to the shore, Herakles stopped next to Kiku's boat in order to avoid getting beached. Kiku stopped and turned to face the side of the boat, looking down at Herakles.

"I'll see you soon… Please be careful," Herakles warned Kiku.

"I will… I'll see you soon, Herakles," Kiku replied, waving goodbye as the merman dove beneath the waves and disappeared from view. As soon as he was sure the other was gone, he picked up the oars to the boat and carried on rowing until he reached the shore.


	5. Chapter 5

Herakles doesn't have wisdom teeth because they're a biological redundancy and I can't imagine merpeople having such redundancies within their population, especially since they hunt us in this universe. They'd need to be better predators than us and that involves having less redundancy built in. Herakles also really dislikes the taste of people. This is probably a good thing in general.

* * *

When Kiku returned to his house that evening, his brother suspected nothing, assuming that he had had no luck with his fishing. The other merpeople who saw Herakles return from the shore just assumed that he had been on recon. And so, the conversation between them had happened with no repercussions.

The next day, Kiku felt revived. He hadn't realised how badly it had deflated him to have Herakles disappear on him, even though the merman wasn't the only friend he had. Yao seemed to notice his better mood, but didn't say too much to him before Kiku left, heading down the stone path in the village towards the sea, wanting to get to his and Herakles's agreed meeting place early.

Crystalline blue waves washed over the jagged grey rocks that Kiku was approaching. He searched for a smoother stone that he could sit on easily, and his eyes fell upon one of the larger boulders, fallen from the cliff face in a recent storm. It had been carried quite far out into the sea by the waves, but the top of the rock had been smoothed over and polished by the running water in the process, and the rock was reachable by a small bridge of smaller stones stretched out across the bay. Kiku smiled a little. It was the perfect meeting spot; Herakles could bask on the rock if he wanted, it was easily accessible by sea and by land, it was prominent, and there was enough space for both of them to sit together without being too close. And so, the human hopped across the bridge to the boulder that was to become one of his favourite places over the coming months.

Herakles woke that morning smiling, happy that Kiku wasn't mad at him for disappearing. He looked at the light filtering into the crimson coral around him and made the decision to go hunting for breakfast. As he swam out of the formation, he noticed his brother, turning his dagger over in his hands, shaking his head. Herakles moved over towards him.

"Are you okay?" He asked Loukas, tilting his head curiously.

"How did it end up there…? Right by where you normally sleep," the younger pondered, placing the sharpened bone into a faded and tattered equipment bag he had slung around his shoulder.

Herakles considered whether or not to tell the full story before answering.

"Well… That jerk Sadik had it earlier…" He commented.

"What? But… How did he have it? And why did he just leave it behind?" His brother asked, confused.

"That's why I was racing him," Herakles explained. "He said he'd give it back if I won. After I got captured… Maybe he thought he would give it back anyway. Maybe he just dumped it to remove any trace of his wrongdoing. I don't know."

Loukas nodded, still seemingly overwhelmed by the new information.

"Okay… I suppose it doesn't matter though. You're back now and safe," he decided.

Herakles nodded. "Alright…" He agreed. "So… Should we go hunting now?"

His brother nodded, and they set off to find some breakfast.

Kiku had been watching the black-headed gulls circling over the sea for about an hour before Herakles turned up. First the birds took off flying into the sky, and then a head surfaced in the distance. Kiku was able to make out brown curly hair from where he sat, and was therefore fairly confident that this was Herakles, here to meet him as he had promised. Herakles looked around for a moment, before his eyes focused on the human sitting up on the rock. At this point, he gave a wave to Kiku, and allowed the human to watch carefully as he drew ever closer. Kiku smiled as he noticed that yes, that definitely was Herakles coming towards him, and he moved aside on the rock to let his friend pull himself up as he started to get closer.

"Hello Herakles," Kiku greeted.

"Hello," Herakles responded, settling himself properly on the rock. "How have you been, Kiku?"

"I've been fine… Not a lot has happened since yesterday though," the human answered. "What about you?"

"I have been… Quite good," Herakles replied. "I went hunting today, and managed to get quite a few fish…"

"Your kind hunts for fish to eat?" Kiku asked. He knew of course that they ate fish, but had never really thought about the details of it before.

"Yes… Well, me and my brother certainly do. We use spears and daggers, and we can also overwhelm the fish with speed, although without some sort of weapon, it can be hard to kill them. It also makes things easier if you're in a group, that's why I take my brother along with me…" Herakles explained.

"I see… We usually lure fish onto hooks using some sort of bait, or else we catch them in large nets…" Kiku compared.

"Yes… I know about the nets," Herakles replied darkly. "As for the hooks… A system like that would not work for us. We are too easily noticed by fish, and we would have nothing to hang the hooks on anyway" he mused about it a little. "Luring… Is something my kind prefer to do with humans."

Kiku paled completely. "W-with humans?" He stuttered, feeling decidedly faint.

"Yes… We would either charm them, and then lure them into the water to drown, or we would use speed and strength to pull them off of boats or those little board things they have…" Herakles told his human friend, wrapping his tail around the rock slightly as he spoke, the blue of it appearing just a little more vibrant than the sea at that point in time. Kiku hardly noticed.

"Y-you would… You…" He stammered, seemingly completely brain dead with fear.

"Kiku?" Herakles asked, waving a webbed hand in front of the human. "Are you okay?"

"Uhh… I-I-I…" Kiku still seemed to be making no sense to the merman.

"Are you okay…?" Herakles asked, confused, before it finally seemed to slot into place for him. "Oh… You don't think I mean you… Do you?" He suggested, tilting his head curiously.

"Ah… Y-you don't mean me?" Kiku asked, looking like he was about to have a heart attack.

"No… I was only referring to the types of methods my kind often use when hunting for humans," Herakles stated matter-of-factly. "My mama often uses them, but personally, I think human tastes dry and flavourless. I would much prefer fish."

"Err…" Kiku wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that, but he was relieved that he seemed to be off the menu, at least for now.

"Still… My mama recently spelled out to the rest of the pod our plan for getting revenge on your kind for their attack on us a few days ago… So be careful Kiku. Bear what I said in mind… Or you might end up as dinner after all," Herakles considered. "Especially since she blames you for me getting separated from the pod for a while…"

Kiku nodded, taking it in for a moment. He felt scared. Of course he felt scared. But he realised now that Herakles wasn't trying to scare him. He was trying to prepare him. There was a war going on.

"Okay," he agreed, nodding.

"Good," Herakles smiled, his eyes lighting up as he continued to speak. "What about you, Kiku? What do you prefer to eat?"

"Hmm…" Kiku thought it over for a while. "Well… I do also like fish, as well as seaweed… And boiled rice… And soy sauce… And of cause, it must all be salted," he decided after a while.

"Seaweed?" Herakles seemed a little bemused. "Are your kind not carnivores?"

"Ah, no, our teeth are adapted so we can eat almost anything," Kiku tried to explain. "So we do eat a lot of different things… We eat meat, fish, and also vegetables we grow ourselves… For example, rice is grown in shallow water that we flood our fields with…"

"You can grow plants? We haven't found a way to grow them at will in the sea… Mostly because the seeds drift away in the current, and grow only where they land… Burying them in the sediment rarely seems to work. Perhaps nature has greater sway over the sea than the land…" Herakles pondered. "And meat? Humans are meat, aren't they?" He tried to compare.

"Uhh… Y-yes." Instantly Kiku was nervous again. "That is true… Meat comes from any animal that isn't a fish generally…"

"True… Humans do taste different to fish… So I assume you eat the other creatures on the land then? Do you hunt them like we hunt fish?" He queried.

"Sometimes we do, but we also domesticate them… That means we keep them in little pens and feed them and keep them happy, and then milk them and cut their wool to make clothes out of, and then when they get old we kill them and eat them," Kiku told Herakles.

Herakles's mind went back to the things Loukas had told him about the creatures on the land and what the humans did to them. "So… You actually care for them? You don't just fatten them up to kill them? Don't you find it hard to eat animals that you cared for so much?" He asked

"Of course we care… We want the animals to be able to live good lives as well, even if they are shorter than ours… And perhaps it does make it hard sometimes to kill them, but we have to eat," Kiku rationalised.

"You do, I understand that," Herakles nodded. "I have to admit, I never realised you humans could care, before you saved me. My family only ever told me tales of human brutality."

"Hmm… My family only ever said how your kind was trying to eradicate ours…. And how you needed to be wiped out before we could ever find peace," Kiku told.

"It would appear that we have both been misled then," Herakles stated.

"Yes… Perhaps if the rest of both our kinds could see this, we could make them understand," Kiku continued, agreeing wholeheartedly with his friend.

Herakles nodded sadly. "It would be good… but I don't think the world works like that."

There was silence for a few seconds before Herakles decided to change the subject.

"What do your teeth look like Kiku?" He asked. "I only see glimpses of them when you talk. Let me see them…" He mused, hands moving towards Kiku's mouth.

"Ah! W-what are you doing?" Kiku blushed bright red at the invasion of his personal space.

"I just want to see your teeth…" Herakles seemed completely focused on his task, prying Kiku's lips apart even as the man tried to struggle against him.

"W-well, you could have just asked, rather than just forcing your hand into my mouth," Kiku complained, pulling away from Herakles, but opening his mouth to show Herakles his teeth anyway.

"Hmm… I see…" Herakles smiled. "Your teeth aren't that dissimilar to mine." He opened his mouth for Kiku to prove his point, and the human flinched a little. Herakles's canines were longer and sharper than his own, and the points of his molars were also sharp rather than blunt. He was also missing wisdom teeth. It was obvious he was generally better adapted to his diet than Kiku.

"We can eat seaweed, but we generally prefer fish… We eat plant material more as a snack than anything," he continued.

Kiku nodded. "We eat a more balanced diet than that… Or, at least, that is what is meant to be healthy for us. Apparently, we can get heart attacks if we eat too much meat all the time. Fish is less damaging to us," he compared.

"I see…" Herakles turned his head to the side. "Personally, I prefer fish anyway, but I can remember others in the pod saying that too much meat was fattening."

Kiku nodded, and Herakles smiled again, stretching and lying back on the rock, his tail uncurling and dipping down into the water, as the length of his tail was too great for him to fit fully on the rock. Kiku watched the merman stretch out almost fully, close his eyes and drift off within the space of only a couple of minutes.

"Herakles…?" He asked, leaning over the merman, a little confused as to how Herakles managed to fall asleep just like that. The merman stayed sleeping. Kiku smiled, and let Herakles sleep, closing his eyes and soaking in the sea breeze.

Hours passed before Herakles awoke. Kiku had leaned forward on the rock in this time, and was now dipping his feet in the water before them, his shoes lying next to him on the rock. The merman sat up, hauling his tail out of the water, and looked over at his friend.

"How are you, Kiku?" He asked suddenly, causing the man to leap up in surprise.

"Ah, it's just you Herakles," he breathed in relief. "I've been fine… Did you sleep well?"

Herakles nodded. "I am getting a little itchy now though," he decided.

"Itchy?" Kiku didn't completely understand why Herakles could be itchy.

"That's what happens to me when I start to dry out…" Herakles explained.

"Okay… So, you should probably go now, shouldn't you?" Kiku assumed.

Herakles nodded. "Yes… I should go… But I'll be back again tomorrow, Kiku."

Kiku nodded. "Okay, Herakles… I'll see you tomorrow."

He skipped over the rocks back home, as Herakles dove into the sea and swam off.


	6. Chapter 6

This chapter is rather short for some reason... Chapter 7 is longer again. Also, cats. And Hera really not understanding humans.

* * *

By the time Kiku made it to the rock the next morning, Herakles was already there, chewing on a fish that seemed recently dead, its scales still shiny and its gills still a healthy red.

"Good morning," the merman smiled a little at Kiku as he sat down on the polished surface.

"Hello Herakles," Kiku replied, smiling back at his friend as he continued to devour the fish before him. Kiku couldn't help but cringe a little as he saw Herakles nonchalantly eat the head of the fish, stripping the creature completely to bones. Herakles noticed his discomfort.

"Do your kind not eat fish this way?" He asked, and Kiku shook his head violently.

"No… We do not eat the heads… Or the innards… Of fish," he explained. Herakles looked a little surprised.

"Really? But those parts are the most nutritious… Particularly fish eyes. They're a good source of moisture too... My kind don't really need it, but yours…" He looked Kiku up and down. "You have to drink from time to time, don't you?"

"Eh… We do… But I'd rather get water from somewhere else than inside another animal."

Herakles shrugged. "It's the only way my kind can get anything to drink…" He mused.

"Ah, I see…" Kiku looked just slightly ill at the thought. As he tried to think of something else, he heard a small noise nearby, and looked to the shore to see a short haired, grey cat grooming itself.

"Cute…" Herakles beamed almost immediately at the sight of the animal.

"You really like cats, don't you?" Kiku assumed.

"Yes…" Herakles still smiled. "Do you keep them, Kiku?" His face suddenly turned to one of fear. "Do you eat them?"

"Ah, no… We don't eat cats. They are our pets. We keep them with us because they are cute and they can be friendly, and so they provide good companions."

"Cats… Are your friends?" Herakles tried to figure out what Kiku could have meant.

"Well, I suppose they count as friends, yes," Kiku confirmed, glad that Herakles at least seemed to have basic understanding of the concept.

"What… Do cats eat?" Herakles asked, curious as usual.

"Um… They often eat small, furry animals such as mice or rabbits that they hunt… But they also like fish… They use their sharp claws to pull them from the water where they suffocate," Kiku described.

"Hmm…" Herakles watched the cat for a while, one webbed hand moving slowly back into the worn shoulder-bag he had brought along, slowly putting the bones of the previous fish away and pulling out a fresh fish and a dagger. Herakles cut a piece from the fish and held it out to the cat.

"It will eat this? It doesn't have to be cooked?" He asked Kiku.

"Ah, it is fine like that… Cats like fish the same way that you do." Kiku nodded.

"I see…" Herakles focused strongly on the cat, staring into its eyes. The feline didn't move from its spot, although it did look up at Herakles.

"Stay still. Look at it but not into its eyes. That just makes them angry unless they trust you," Kiku tried to suggest, guiding Herakles in the correct way to approach a strange animal. Herakles nodded, and stayed as still as he could, and eventually, the cat took notice, ears pricking up as it noticed the fish in front of it. Slowly but agilely, the cat climbed up onto the rock pathway leading to Herakles and Kiku's meeting place and began to make its way towards Herakles and the fish. As it got close, Herakles lowered the fish piece down to its level and the cat sniffed it a little before opening its mouth wide, showing a long row of long, pointed canine teeth and shrunken incisors. The cat closed its jaws around the edge of the piece and pulled it from Herakles's hand, dragging it to the level of the small rock it now stood on while it devoured the morsel. Herakles smiled and dug his own teeth into the rest of the fish in the meantime.

"They seem to be proud animals..." Herakles noticed, continuing to eat the fish.

"They are… Very proud. You have to get close to them before they begin to trust you," Kiku instructed, watching the cat continue to eat the fish.

"I like them, despite that… It is a good trait for an animal to have," Herakles commented, smiling as the cat finished his meal. The merman put his dagger away in the bag he had brought with him, and it didn't go unnoticed by Kiku.

"Where did you get a bag like this?" He asked, hands moving to caress the cloth curiously.

"My mother took it… From a human," Herakles replied, unapologetically. "She had already killed him, so the others in the pod sorted through his things and kept them… I fix it with cloth that we also take from dead humans." He took another bite out of the fish while he spoke, ripping the flesh with his sharp teeth.

Kiku looked mildly creeped out. "You… Took that from a dead man?" He shivered a little.

Herakles nodded, seemingly a little surprised as to the human's reaction until he remembered Kiku's uneasiness with talking about the murder of his own kind.

"Oh… I'm sorry Kiku. I forgot that it's not polite to discuss killing humans when you're speaking to one. I just… Am so used to talking to you, it is as if I am back with my family… my manners must have slipped," he apologised, looking over to Kiku as he watched for signs of the human relaxing.

"Ah… It's… okay…" Kiku tried to say, but Herakles wasn't convinced.

"Are you sure…?" He asked, trying to figure out why Kiku still looked afraid… he wondered if the same tactics he used to calm his brother down when he was scared would help.

"Kiku… Do you want a hug?" He asked, extending his arms out, half a dead fish still flopping lifeless in one hand.

Kiku turned completely red, and shook his head rapidly.

"E-eh… N-no… I am fine Herakles," he stuttered, looking embarrassed. Herakles looked confusedly at Kiku, unsure as to what was wrong.

"Are you sure…? You look afraid... Usually, I give family members hugs when they seem scared…" He explained, tilting his head to the side as he spoke.

"Oh… W-well… You're not supposed to do things like that with people who aren't family…" Kiku replied, slowly seeming to become less embarrassed about the situation.

"Really? I guess you have a point… But friends are like family, aren't they? And you are my friend… I thought it would be okay if I treated you like I treat my brother," Herakles continued, wanting Kiku to understand where he was coming from.

"Oh…" Kiku blushed again, looking away. "I'm sorry. I just… Respect my personal space," he admitted.

"Hmm…" Herakles thought about it for a while. "It's okay… I don't mind you wanting not to be touched… It just seemed strange at first."

Kiku nodded. "It is fine, Herakles… We already knew we have differences in values and culture…" He assured his friend.

Herakles nodded, looking out over the ocean, suddenly deep in thought. As his mind wandered elsewhere, he absentmindedly ate the remaining fish.

"Hmm… Do you want to… Go for a swim?" He asked suddenly.

"W-won't the rest of your kind assume that I'm trying to hurt you, or that I'm some sort of meal?" The human jumped up at the suggestion, back on edge.

"Not really… the rest of the pod is out at sea, trying to drag humans out of the boats that they take beyond the reef for recreation or to catch fish on those lines with hooks on them that you spoke of yesterday… They would have no reason to come to the shore like this. They assume I am simply watching out for backup, making sure that the humans out there cannot get help…" Herakles explained, smiling a little at Kiku.

"Oh…" Said human shivered a little at the suggestion that his kind was out there dying. He tried to focus on the fact that that made him, and likely Herakles, safe.

"So we can swim, if you want to… I'll keep an eye out just in case," Herakles continued, trying to come up with ways to keep Kiku safe.

"Ah… but my clothes would get waterlogged and drag me down," Kiku pointed out.

"Take them off," Herakles suggested, which brought on more blushing from Kiku.

"W-what? I can't do that! What if people see me?" He exclaimed, crimson with embarrassment at the mere thought.

"Oh… How does your kind ever swim then?" Herakles asked, curious as to how Kiku got around these problems.

"Well… We have special clothes that we wear when we swim… But I'm not wearing them," Kiku stated.

"Hmm… Okay. I understand," Herakles looked a little exasperated. "Can we swim tomorrow, then?" he asked, looking hopeful.

"I… I can't come out here tomorrow. I promised my friends on the land I'd spend time with them." Kiku sighed, not wanting to disappoint his new friend. Herakles seemed to understand completely though.

"I see… Then we can just do it the day after. There might be more merpeople around tomorrow anyway; they tend not to go out to hunt on two days in a row," he reasoned.

Kiku nodded. "That seems fair… I'll meet you back here the day after tomorrow then," he agreed.

"Are you sure you can make it then, definitely? And with all the special clothes you need?" Herakles asked, just to be sure.

Kiku nodded. "Definitely."

"Then promise me? The same way you make promises to your other friends?" The merman asked, wondering if the man was usually good to his word.

"Okay." Kiku held out his little finger to Herakles.

"What is that for?" He asked, confused yet again.

"It's just the way we make promises on the land… Give me your little finger for a moment," Kiku commanded, and Herakles obeyed, placing the bones of the second fish into his bag before stretching his hand towards Kiku, who wrapped their little fingers together (even though the webbing on Herakles's hand made it harder than it usually would have been).

"Okay, then it's a promise," Kiku finalised. "I'll see you the day after tomorrow, Herakles." The human turned to leave after speaking, while Herakles stayed sat on the rock, staring at his little finger in confusion.

"Promises… Are made with fingers?" He mused, unable to figure it out.

"Herakles!" Called Helene as her son returned to the rest of the pod that night. "Good work… The humans were completely helpless. Obviously there was no sign of help?"

Herakles nodded. "There were barely any humans even close to the shore, mama," he described, deliberately leaving Kiku out.

"Good…" She smiled, looking over at him, and he knew she had more to say.

"What is it mama?" He asked, looking over her, trying to figure out what she wanted from him.

"I know human isn't your favourite food, Herakles…" She started, and the merman's stomach dropped as she continued. "But I think it's high time you made another kill."


	7. Chapter 7

Even good people do bad things sometimes...

Warnings for kind of distressing (although bloodless) violence in this chapter, and sorry to the reviewer who was convinced Herakles wouldn't kill a person. This chapter was already written long before you made that assumption (long before I published any of this fic too...)  
The description on firing guns underwater was taken from a discussion I had with a physicist on the matter. It does apparently depend on the gun though.

Also, this is kind of a turning point in the story. After this things start to build and the narrative really gets going. Slowly.

* * *

Kiku headed away from the sea as he walked towards Feliciano's house, which was closer to the centre of town. Overall, the place where Kiku lived was small and quaint, so it was only a few hundred metres from his house to the spacious, sunbathed plaza in the middle of the settlement, which had multiple roads from it, leading to various places in the town. On Sundays, this central circle of stone was the site of the local market. Today though, there was nothing except for the tables set out by the local café and the fountain in the middle of the area. Crossing past the fountain, Kiku stared into the water, noticing the coins that other villagers had thrown there, hoping to gain luck or fulfil wishes. Yao had always encouraged him to toss money into the water in the hope that it would cause wishes to come true, but Kiku was always more careful than that with money, and hated to waste it on anything he didn't think was entirely necessary or valuable. Feliciano, on the other hand…

Making his way to the other end of the plaza, Kiku took the road straight ahead of him, which led down a winding track which ultimately finished in the church at the extreme end of town. Three quarters of the way towards the building, a turning revealed itself on the right. Venturing down it, Kiku found himself on a cobbled road, along which there were several small cottages. Feliciano lived on this road. In fact, he was standing in the garden, watering the violets, as Kiku approached.

"Hey Kiku! We're meant to be hanging out, right? I'll just finish up here, and then we can go," he chirped as soon as he saw his friend, almost falling over with the over the top wave he sent his way.

"Ah, okay Feli… Don't feel like you have to rush though, we're not in a hurry," Kiku assured, deciding to wait at the front gate while Feliciano sped inside, dropping his watering can and shouting something garbled to his brother before escaping through the door, skipping past the garden gate and running into Kiku in his haste. The Asian boy stiffened a little.

Feliciano was taller than Kiku by a couple of inches, and was known for being eternally friendly, even to the point where he was overbearing with his affection in the eyes of someone more reserved like Kiku. His shining, light brown eyes betrayed every emotion that passed across his face, and his russet hair, which almost seemed red in the sun, hung about his face randomly, save for the curl sticking out of the left side of his head, which seemed to float as if it had a mind of his own.

"Ah, sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to hit you like that Kiku!" Feli apologised, smiling a little when Kiku relaxed.

"It is fine, Feli… I saw that you didn't mean it," he forgave, deciding to take a few steps away even still.

"Okay then… Shall we go get Ludwig now?" Feliciano enquired, and Kiku nodded, shaking his head in amusement as Feliciano's whole face lit up and the boy almost seemed to dance down the street, laughing with all the carefreeness of a child. He didn't wait for Kiku to catch up with him (he knew the smaller would always manage to keep pace regardless), and instead turned towards the Church at the end of the road, carrying on until he reached the simple but pretty bell tower within its own stone clearing, marking it out as important. Not stopping to admire the structure, he turned his attention to the small track leading from the side of the square the church was situated in. It was deeply in need of repair, having not even been paved. Kiku and Feli knew it as the quickest shortcut to Ludwig's house that didn't involve having to go back to the middle of town. The Asian hurried up to meet the hyper Italian, who had paused at the beginning of the track.

"Oh, Kiku, you caught up," he grinned, running down the dirt path as soon as Kiku nodded the affirmative. The Asian sighed at the haste, immediately setting off after his friend, following him 300 yards until Feli hopped a fence and Kiku followed, climbing to the other side, where another road stretched before them. Ludwig lived just a couple of houses away, his house seeming cleaner than the others even from the outside.

"Ludwig!" Feli called, skipping up to the door and knocking loudly. "Are you ready yet?"

The door opened almost immediately, and tall, intimidating Ludwig stepped straight out and locked the door behind him.

"Of course I'm ready Feliciano," he sighed. "Why wouldn't I be on time? You, on the other hand, are 2 minutes late."

Ludwig was almost nothing like Feliciano: while the latter would quite happily sleep the day away and lived almost spontaneously, everything Ludwig did ran to a schedule that he followed to a T. Even his appearance looked different to Feliciano; icy blue eyes and perfectly slicked back blond hair, which seemed to have not a strand out of place.

Of course, being the opposite of him, Feliciano failed to understand why Ludwig was so annoyed with him.

"Aww, but Ludwig! I was only watering my garden, we tried to make it here on time," he whined, even though Ludwig dropped the subject and moved on.

"Anyway, we should go now." The tall man decided

Kiku nodded. "Alright then," he agreed, beginning to walk back towards the town centre, Ludwig following in a brisk walk.

"Ah! Wait up guys!" Feli called after them, running to catch up to his more serious friends.

"Well, how have you two been?" Ludwig asked, once they were all sitting down on the sea wall, Feliciano already having attempted to flirt with two women, and Ludwig having already dragged him away.

"Oh, I've been great!" Feliciano exclaimed. "I've seen lots of pretty girls, and Lovi even got a chance to start flirting, even though usually he's a little grumpy whenever we go out but the girls still love him anyway and boy does he know it, although this time he actually only seemed to attract this Spanish guy and I never even realised Lovi was into men, and he swears he isn't, but for a guy he was really pretty, and I could forgive him if he decided that was just too good to pass up anyway even if he is denying it because I bet that in reality he's…"

Ludwig covered Feliciano's mouth before he made things even more awkward then they already were by ranting on about his older brother's love interests.

"That's nice Feliciano," he assured. "Kiku, how have you been?"

Feliciano seemed eager to change the subject too. "Yeah Kiku! Your cousin said that you've been going to the beach to meet someone in secret every day! Tell me, are you in love? Is she pretty?" His eyes lit up as he rambled on about his favourite types of girl.

"Ah, Feli… I…" Kiku didn't know what to say. He knew he couldn't tell his friends about Herakles, but how else was he meant to set the record straight? He wasn't dating anyone, and he certainly wasn't into any of the 'types' that his friend was listing off. It wasn't that he hadn't been attracted to women before… Just that Feliciano didn't understand his likes at all (he far preferred 2D women). Unfortunately, the Italian seemed to take his hesitation to answer in a completely different way than intended by Kiku.

"Oh! How silly of me, Kiku bats for both teams, right? So you could have been out there with a cute boy you feel embarrassed to tell us about?"

Kiku felt like screaming with frustration, but he still kept some of his composure, only looking a little flustered.

"Eh…? N-no, Feli, really, I…" Ludwig seemed to understand what was plaguing him though.

"Feliciano, enough," he stepped in. "Kiku clearly isn't comfortable talking about it. I'm sure he'd gladly tell you if he was, but for now you'll just have to let it drop."

Feliciano pouted again, but Kiku recovered, glad Ludwig at least seemed to get that he wasn't happy to talk.

"Other than that Kiku, have you been well?" He asked, wanting to steer the conversation out of relationships and other things he didn't truly understand.

"I have been good Ludwig… Pochi spent half an hour yesterday chasing a butterfly, and Tama ate half a tuna out of the fridge while Yao wasn't looking. Naturally he's now being watched far more closely," Kiku carried on, smiling at the thought of his pets.

"I see… my dogs would never get away with something like that… I did not raise them to want food outside of their feeding times, and as I stick them to the schedule so rigidly, they never get a chance to be hungry enough to steal food," Ludwig compared. Their conversation ended up drawing in Feliciano, who never kept quiet for long.

"Oh! My kitty eats whenever he wants; I would never keep him hungry like that."

Ludwig sighed. "Your cat must be a pig if it eats so much. Pets will always eat the food you give them; it's cruelty, not kindness if you feed them too much."

Feliciano seemed deflated. "Aww… but he loves pasta…"

"Cats are not meant to eat pasta!" Ludwig fumed. "Are you trying to make him sick?"

"I'm sorry!" The smaller squeaked, trying to hide behind Kiku.

"Ah, Feli… Personal space…" Kiku complained, not liking the way Feli's hands were gripping his shoulders.

"Feliciano… I'm not mad at you; I'm just annoyed that you seem to be so oblivious to how much damage you could be causing to your pets. Please, in future, think about how their health could be affected. Cats are carnivores, Feliciano, they can't eat carbohydrates such as pasta without being sick, even if they seem to like your pasta because of the meat that's in it," Ludwig backtracked, not wanting his friend to feel uncomfortable.

"Oh! So can I give him the sauce without the pasta?" He asked, looking hopeful.

"I guess there's no problem with it… At least, not that I can see, but I'm not a vet," Ludwig reasoned.

"Yay!" Feliciano grinned from ear to ear.

"Ludwig, how have you been? I don't think we got around to you telling us," Kiku inquired.

"Well, I have been fine, I suppose… My brother has been causing problems with his partying; keeping the neighbours up, causing a mess that I have to clean up… Lying around the house hung-over the next morning… But I myself have found that things have been going well. It's quite nice to sit and read with the dogs by my feet while Gilbert is out with his friends," Ludwig described.

"It sounds great, Ludwig…" Feliciano mused, seemingly lost in thought. "Ah! I'll have to have you two over for dinner soon! I haven't even had the chance to show either of you the new paintings I've done since the last time you visited my house!" He realised as his thoughts came to fruition, smiling at the thought of spending time with his friends.

"It would be nice Feli… We don't get enough of a chance to spend time together, sometimes…" Kiku agreed.

"Yes… it would be nice," Ludwig attested, thinking that it would be good to relax for once in a while at Feli's house. Feliciano smiled even wider, babbling on about the plans the three were to make for the next time they met.

Herakles didn't look behind him as he swam with great speed towards the boat. He knew his brother had his back and besides, this was important. He couldn't stop, not even for a minute. The people in the boat his group had tracked down were laying mines into the sea in order to disrupt their hunting. It was a deliberate attempt to destroy them. Herakles knew he had to act to save himself and his family.

'But what if they feel threatened? Maybe if you reasoned with them, they would be just like Kiku…' A voice in the back of his head warned. For the moment, Herakles moved it aside. He was getting close to the boat now, and there was no time for him to question the morality of his group. They all had to stay unwavering in resolve to survive.

"Herakles, are you ready?" Asked one of the other mermen in the group. Herakles nodded. It was now or never. Swimming at full speed, Herakles slammed himself into the side of the boat, two or three others joining him. The vessel rocked- it wasn't really built to be that sturdy- and a couple of the other merpeople present took this as their chance to leap out of the water, tackling the humans inside the boat and dragging them down into the water while they were distracted. The men tried to struggle, but were dragged deeper below the surface, where they would inevitably drown. Herakles watched, wondering what it was to drown. How could something as mundane as water kill?

"Herakles, don't get all philosophical on us!" Loukas shouted, snapping him back into reality. Most of the merpeople in their group had already disappeared after the humans, hoping to scavenge what they could from the bodies, but Herakles still didn't feel at ease… Something was wrong.

As he looked around, his eyes fell on one more human, holding his breath against the flow of the water. He must have escaped the boat before his fellows attacked, and had only now ventured below to assess the threat. His hand held a gun of some kind, and although Herakles wasn't sure how well those things worked underwater, he was still wary. He hissed at the human, getting ready to attack if the human did. The man pulled the trigger. Herakles dove down rapidly, avoiding the path of the bullet, which only just reached the space Herakles had been occupying before stopping entirely and sinking to the bottom of the sea at a leisurely pace. Herakles by this point was already moving forwards towards the man, who seemed shocked, and aimed his weapon again in preparation to fire, only to find that the water had by now filled the barrel of the gun, seizing up the parts and jamming the mechanism. Panicking, the human reached for a dagger by his side… But before he could grab the weapon, Herakles had grabbed him. One hand tightened around the human's throat for good measure as with a chocked scream the man was dragged deep beneath the surface. Herakles ignored the struggling of the man he had trapped as he stripped the human's dagger from his side and threw it back to Loukas who held it closely, not wanting the dying man to have any chance to hurt his brother. It was at this point that the first taste of regret passed Herakles's mind, as he noticed the appearance of the man whose struggles were growing weak. This man had black hair too. The merman shrugged it off, trying to keep any thoughts of Kiku far from his mind as the thrashing of the human ceased.

"Is he dead yet?" Loukas asked, drawing up beside him. Herakles nodded.

"Great, let's see if he has anything interesting besides the dagger," his brother decided, taking a moment to rifle the human's pockets, shaking his head when he found nothing. "Oh well. Should we sink the boat?" He asked, looking up to the surface thoughtfully.

"We should make sure those mines won't go off first… Perhaps discard them on the rocks or beach, or explode them somewhere they can't do harm… Maybe we could even destroy the boat with them inside," Herakles considered, his mind blank and trying to focus only on the mission at hand.

"Okay, I'll get the others to join me with that; you can carry that corpse back to the rest of the pod… We're probably gonna eat well these next few days," Loukas agreed, swimming off towards the now empty boat while Herakles returned to his pod, the dead body of the human lying limp in his hands, and his heart on the ocean floor.


	8. Chapter 8

This chapter: swimming! And the beginning of something stirring inside Herakles's heart.

* * *

The next day, the whole town seemed to be in a state of high alert. Kiku had slept in until 8 or 9, by which point his siblings were all already awake. He rose and dressed straight away, choosing a more westernised outfit of blue trousers and a plain white, short sleeved t-shirt for ease of removal, and making sure to wear his swimming shorts on under his regular clothes. Once he was fully dressed he headed out into the rest of the house for breakfast, where he was met by Yao, who looked decidedly worried.

"Kiku…" He started, but then stopped, unsure.

"What is it?" His brother asked, wondering what Yao was worried about.

"There were murders out at sea yesterday… Please be careful today. I know you want to go swimming, but I think you should stay close to the shore," he warned. Kiku thought it over; it certainly made sense, although he had Herakles to protect him… Right? The merman certainly meant Kiku no harm, and he was unsure whether he actually meant harm to any human. Still, he put Yao at rest.

"It is fine Yao… I will make sure to stay within sight of the shore at all times," he decided, not wanting his brother to be concerned about him.

"Alright then, aru… But be back by sunset, I'm not taking any chances!" Yao agreed, letting Kiku go for breakfast.

Kiku climbed over the rocks, trying to get to the meeting place as quickly as possible. In his hand was clutched a white towel, which he was hoping he could keep on the rock and therefore dry (well, relatively), and he wanted to get it to the relative safety of the rock before it could get drenched by the spray which was high enough to completely soak the smaller stones he was forced to walk across. He just about managed this task, sitting on the rock with a damp, but still useable towel, and relaxed a little, settling down to wait for Herakles.

Herakles meanwhile, had a heavy heart. His whole pod, including himself, had feasted on the humans killed yesterday, and he hoped the smell wouldn't linger on his breath and make Kiku afraid. He hoped that Kiku would never notice that it had been he who had killed those men. And he felt guilty about keeping the truth from his friend, about not telling him that yes, he sometimes did have no choice but to kill people. Kiku would understand, right? But part of him felt bad for having fun with Kiku so soon after he had ended another of his kind. And was he putting Kiku in danger? The human was far more breakable than he thought he was after all. Herakles didn't know what to do. There was also another feeling plaguing Herakles: a small but growing desire to protect his friend at all costs. Herakles put it down to guilt and moved on. He was swimming towards the surface: after all, he had a promise to keep.

Kiku had been waiting for half an hour before Herakles arrived. The merman looked hesitant when surfacing, but smiled when he saw Kiku.

"Hello," he greeted, hauling himself up onto the rock, and looking over his friend's appearance, his look becoming quizzical.

"Your water clothes look no different from your ordinary ones," he pondered, completely confused.

"Ah… Well, these are my regular clothes… Hang on a minute," Kiku laughed nervously, and as if to demonstrate, stripped his shirt and trousers, leaving them on the rock and Kiku only in his swimming shorts.

"Oh…" Herakles looked Kiku over, understanding how these clothes were different. They only covered part of his body for a start, leaving Kiku's chest bare (an area which, Herakles noticed, looked little different from his own). Herakles could also get a better view of those curious things called feet that Kiku had, and the ends of his equally mysterious legs.

"It will be easier for me to swim like this," Kiku continued, Herakles nodding.

"Very well…" Herakles agreed. "Shall we swim now?"

"Yes, there's little else left to do," Kiku nodded, watching as Herakles leapt back into the water.

"Come on then," he beckoned. "It's safe at the moment: there's nothing around, I promise."

Kiku slid towards the water, pushing himself off of the rock and landing feet first into the water, surfacing after a few seconds. Herakles watched the human enter the water, wondering how Kiku would manage with the depth. He smiled when he saw Kiku was competent with swimming, eyes moving to his legs kicking furiously under the water.

"Your kind really does have to work hard to swim… But it is nice that you seem good at it. Especially since I want to show you some things," he commented.

"Ah…" Kiku replied. "Well, I suppose my kind is more used to the land than the water… But of course I can swim. I live by the sea after all. And there are things you would like to show me? Then by all means, go ahead."

Herakles smiled, glad that Kiku showed interest in his world. "Okay then… follow me," he beckoned, swimming off away from the rock, but making sure to stay parallel to the shore, so that he didn't risk swimming Kiku out too close to where his kind were likely hunting. He heard splashes behind him that he assumed were Kiku following behind him.

After a few minutes of swimming, the two of them came across a pod of dolphins, chasing fish underneath the waves. Herakles stopped, and turned around to watch Kiku swim up to him, the human clearly going slower and making those weird motions with his arms and legs that Herakles found fascinating.

"Look, Kiku, the dolphins are about." The merman pointed to the creatures once his friend had caught up.

"Ah…" Kiku smiled a little. He liked sea creatures; but dolphins rarely showed up around the areas of the beach he went to to relax.

"I like the dolphins… They are good friends of mine," Herakles stated, smiling down at the mammals eating the fish below the water.

"I also like dolphins… Even though I do not see them all that often. It's rare to see them this close to the shore, and they certainly never go up to the beach where most of the humans spend their time," Kiku agreed, watching the animals hunt.

"I can imagine why they wouldn't… They seem to dislike noise, and while they do not hate humans or openly fear them like my kind do, they do seem to be wary of you," Herakles replied.

"I can understand them being wary of us… We do sometimes hunt similar animals to them… More often than not whales."

"Hmm… whales are a good source of meat… I've heard that merpeople in the colder seas of the world sometimes eat them… I wouldn't have thought that they are eaten around here though." Herakles seemed a little confused.

"Using our boats, we often travel a long way away from our homes… I personally have never hunted any whales, but there are those in the town who have…" Kiku described.

"Hmm… Well, if you'll hunt merpeople, then why wouldn't you hunt whales?"

"I suppose…" Kiku didn't seem completely pleased with the assertion, and Herakles thought that it was time to search for something else for them to look at. His mind considered showing Kiku his home, but he banished the thought instantly. It was far, far too dangerous for Kiku to get that close to where the pod was. He decided on another plan.

"It's too risky for you to see where I live…" He started. "But I would like to take you to see some similar coral nearby. It's a little way away from here… but it's far enough from the pod that nobody should be around to see you. I'll still keep watch though," he added, just to be on the safe side. Kiku thought it over for a moment. He would probably end up disobeying his promise to stay in sight of the shore, but Herakles knew what he was doing, and he was trying to keep him out of harm's way…

"That seems alright…" He finally agreed, understanding the dangers, and knowing that Herakles meant well, even if he did seem… A little extra safe. Were the other merpeople in Herakles's pod really that dangerous?

"Okay then… it's this way," Herakles started to lead Kiku into deeper water, heading a little away from the shore but off on a diagonal tangent, so that he was heading, with Kiku in tow, away from the coral where he usually lived.

Kiku followed behind, going fine at first, but soon beginning to struggle with the increase in current as the pair got away from the safety of the shore. Herakles didn't seem to notice his friend's difficulty to begin with, and Kiku began to feel a little worried, knowing that he would tire out before they could reach their destination if he just carried on the way he was going. And with the water now far too deep to stand in… He didn't like the likely consequences of that one bit. Luckily for Kiku, Herakles turned around after a few minutes of swimming, on the lookout for sharks or other merpeople, and noticed Kiku was several hundred metres behind him. He swam back to his friend to check up on him.

"Are you okay?" He asked, concerned.

"Ah… The current is… A little hard to swim against…" Kiku complained. "Is there another way we can go?"

Herakles scowled. He wasn't used to swimming with humans. They were so slow! And add to that, they seemed unable to deal with such currents… If he were with his brother, Herakles knew that they would find no problem with the flow of water, knowing the riptide at other parts of the shore miles down the beach to be far worse than any current here. And on top of that, he had to be careful to keep Kiku safe from merpeople and other sea creatures, since he couldn't exactly defend himself in the water. The human he had killed the day before was proof enough of how fragile human life really was. As for another route… Herakles couldn't think of one. But he had a different solution.

"I'll help you swim," he smiled, grabbing hold of Kiku's hand and dragging him through the rough bit of the sea with ease.

"Ah… W-wait…" Kiku stuttered, turning red at the sudden contact. Herakles took his protest to mean that he was unused to the speed instead.

"I know it's faster than you're used to swimming… But we just need to get through this area of current… Then we'll almost be there," he smiled, tightening his grip on Kiku reassuringly and causing the human to blush an even deeper red.

It took them a quarter of an hour of Herakles swimming against the current and Kiku feeling uncomfortable with the contact between them before the sea became calm and Herakles let go of his friend. Kiku sighed in relief at the re-establishing of his personal space.

"We're almost at the coral now," Herakles stated, continuing to swim in the right direction, Kiku following. "It should only take a few more minutes before we reach it."

The human nodded, following his merman friend, feeling rejuvenated from the break from swimming he had had. After a little while longer, the two reached the area Herakles had been talking about. The water was crystalline and almost neon blue in this part of the sea, and bright coral in every colour imaginable stretched out below the waterline, for several hundred metres in each direction save for the one the two had come from, where the sea was far clearer. As Kiku had suspected, the shore was essentially out of sight, only just visible as a small smudge on the horizon. Herakles seemed at home here though, speaking with confidence.

"It is in coral like this that my kind most often make their homes. We use caves and the like too, of course, but predators are less likely to come close to the coral, so it protects us far better" the merman narrated, seeing Kiku look down on the reef in deep interest. The human had seen coral before; he had been out to the reef in which Herakles lived after all. But the structures of calcium seemed majestic no matter how many times a person saw them.

"It's nice and warm around here this time of day too… Perfect to relax in…" Herakles continued, rolling to lay on his back, his friend following. It seemed almost a perfect place to float and relax a while…

"Kiku, have you seen any more cats recently?" Herakles asked, breaking the silence that had fallen upon the two. Kiku turned his head sideways to regard the merman.

"Of course… I do have a cat of my own," he explained, amused at Herakles's apparently growing love of cats.

"Your own cat…" Herakles mused. "Cute… What is it called?"

"His name is Tama… He has a strong love of fish which seems to always be getting him into trouble one way or another… For example, when he steals food from the fridge… Yao hates it when he does that…" Kiku smiled and closed his eyes. "And then, there was the time he fell into a pond belonging to the house next door, trying to catch fish… Other than that though, he has always been docile, as far as cats go. He rarely brings in dead animals, or scratches the furniture."

"….Furniture?" Herakles asked, not understanding the unfamiliar word.

"Ah, yes… Things like beds, sofas, and so on… We sit or lie on them when we want to rest."

"And cats scratch them up?" Herakles continued.

"Yes… They need to scratch to keep their claws in good condition… it also helps them to gain exercise. However, we far prefer them to scratch up toys that we make for that purpose, rather than things we would rather use elsewhere," Kiku told him.

"I see… We do not make toys for other animals. We only use toys to help teach our young to hunt and things like that," Herakles compared, before changing the subject entirely. "What does your cat look like?"

"Hmm…. He is mostly black, but has white parts on his legs and also on the front of his body," Kiku described.

"That sounds really cute… I hope I can meet him someday, Kiku."

Kiku smiled. "Ah… Well, hopefully, someday, you can…"

Before long, the sun started to edge lower in the sky, casting deep orange rays across the duo. Herakles looked up for a moment, before his thoughts flew to the rest of the pod. They would be heading for the shore soon, to try to subdue any humans still in the water after dark. They would also likely be wondering where he was. He couldn't let Kiku be put at risk.

"We should head back…" He started. "It was nice to spend time with you today though."

Kiku looked to the position of the sun, and nodded. If he stayed out any longer, his brother would not be happy with him. "It would seem so… Thank you for taking me out here Herakles, I also had a nice time." Kiku smiled a little, and Herakles nodded.

"We should head back now then…" He insisted, a little worried now as he envisioned his people finding Kiku on the shore and slaughtering the man on the spot as he was left helpless to stop them.

"Okay," Kiku agreed, flipping forwards onto his front and following Herakles back the way they had come.

The journey back was a little quicker with the current helping them the whole way, so Herakles was able to get Kiku back before there was any chance of the human being in danger. Kiku hauled himself back up onto the rock, wrapping his towel around himself in an attempt to dry off before picking up his clothes from earlier and looking back to Herakles.

"When should we meet again?" He asked, his clothes in one hand while the other held onto the towel to stop it falling off of his shoulders.

"Well… Maybe at least we should meet back here tomorrow to talk? We can decide any further activities we want to do then," Herakles suggested.

"That sounds good," Kiku agreed, smiling over at his friend.

"Great," Herakles smiled widely. "I'll see you tomorrow then, Kiku."

Kiku nodded. "Okay… See you tomorrow Herakles." He waved a little before skipping back over the rocks, towards the shore and eventually back into the town. Herakles watched for several minutes, waiting until Kiku was gone before relaxing, glad his friend was safe. As he turned around and swam back out to sea to meet up with the rest of the pod, his heart fluttered just a little at the thought of Kiku ever being hurt. The merman didn't notice the unfamiliar feeling.


	9. Chapter 9

Herakles philosophises in this chapter... A lot. I didn't realise how much shorter this was than the others when I first wrote it like a year ago. I think I just got tired of writing such mind bending stuff and assumed it was of length. Since my chapters basically follow events of a single day or major event per chapter, the story's sort of moved on too much to really add too much more to this (as I've said many times before, chapter 14 has been finished).

Story wise, there's a two week time skip after this chapter. I thought I should bring it up because I don't timeskip often in this fic.

* * *

"Do you think there might be another world out there somewhere, where humans and merpeople aren't fighting the way they are here?" Herakles pondered.

"You seem philosophical today," Kiku pointed out, looking over at Herakles from his place next to him on the rock.

It was the day after their swim in the ocean, and both Kiku and Herakles had returned to their usual meeting point. The sun was unusually warm, and caused the water below them to sparkle, and Kiku to feel especially relaxed, and almost a little tired. Herakles had already warned him against sleeping though. Said merman shrugged at the statement.

"Perhaps… I was just wondering though… It would be nice if somewhere, there were people just like us, who could be friends… Without there being implications."

Kiku thought it over. "It would be nice…" He agreed. "But we might not even have to look to other worlds… Maybe there is another place within this one where things are so different… Different groups of humans have different cultures, after all."

Herakles nodded. "Yes… I didn't think of that… Maybe somewhere, humans and merpeople are living in harmony without trying to kill each other…"

Herakles remained still for a while, seemingly lost in thought, and Kiku's attention turned instead to the fish swimming below the crystalline waters he could see from the safety of the rock. The previous conversation had almost entirely slipped from his mind by the time Herakles spoke again.

"Why did we end up here?"

"What?" Kiku seemed confused ."We just woke up and made the decision to come here… Didn't we?"

"Ah…" Herakles chuckled a little ."No, I wasn't referring to that. I meant more… In general. Out of all the places in the world where we could have been born… We became a part of this society. We could just as easily have been born in a place where things were different, couldn't we?"

"Well… I can't see any reason why not." Kiku still seemed a little confused. "Where did all these sudden deep thoughts come from?"

"I was just thinking about… How sad it was that my family wouldn't like it if they knew we were friends… And it made me wonder whether things had to be this way."

"I suppose… Life can't be perfect… Even if our kinds were friends… There would be other difficulties," Kiku mused.

"Ah, of course! I never thought of that. Thank you." Herakles set about pondering his new perspective.

"Oh, you're welcome then, I suppose."

"Yes… It would be just too boring if everything was perfect… So there has to always be something that is less than perfect… Even some things that seem rather bad. It makes things interesting, and gives us something to strive towards," Herakles continued.

"Yes, I agree with that," Kiku smiled.

"I suppose, given time, we might find a way to remove the imperfections in this world… But even if we did, we would probably still all find something to fight about, wouldn't we? …other groups of people would find differences that would turn to hatred, and then there would be more wars, more violence… Some people can't seem to be able to deal with others being different. But aren't differences what make us interesting? If we just talked about each other's beliefs and debated our differences, instead of hating people who aren't exactly like us, we could learn so much… And I think it would make the world a more diverse, interesting, and overall nice place…" The merman theorised.

"Would you prefer to use words then, rather than actions?" Kiku prompted, deciding to keep the conversation going.

"Hmm… It really depends on the situation. Sometimes, there is no choice but to use actions; I can't always reason with people. Sometimes, when someone is trying to kill you, you have to resort to violence to protect yourself, even if that ends up with one person dying. I don't like killing people, and I wish that I could attempt to solve things with words, but that's just not possible with the attitudes of the people who live on the land with you," Herakles admitted frankly.

Kiku tried not to think back to the humans who had been reported killed out at sea just a couple of days before. He hadn't previously thought Herakles capable of having any connection with the deaths at all; now he wasn't so sure, and he didn't want to have to consider his friend a killer. He banished the thoughts from his mind.

"Do the other humans try to attack you often?" He asked, trying to change the subject a little.

"Not really often at all, thankfully…" Herakles replied. "They seem to be afraid of my kind, more than anything. Of course, some people just want to attack us even more because of that… They see us as a threat to be destroyed. I suppose some people just think themselves more powerful than us… They underestimate us, considering that we have the terrain advantage. You humans should really think twice before taking on merpeople in the water… Especially since your kind needs air to survive. It might be a different story on the land, but we never go there, so in general, it seems as though my kind has the upper hand."

"We humans do seem to outstretch ourselves sometimes… I don't know how we got so arrogant… Most of us are not like that though, it is just some individuals," Kiku tried to explain.

"Hmm…" Herakles remembered at this point his earlier revelation about how fragile human life was, and he began to worry for Kiku's safety again, the strange feeling of protectiveness returning. He turned to his friend, face earnest.

"Kiku," he started, completely serious. "Promise me you'll never do anything like that… That you'll always remember the danger my kind can pose to you. Never go out unprepared, never sail deep into the water alone, and never underestimate merpeople."

"Ah… I am sure that you've warned me not to travel too far out to sea before," Kiku replied. "Don't worry too much about me though. I am not like the humans who underestimate your kind, I always make sure to be well prepared for everything," he reassured.

Herakles relaxed slightly at the reassurance, smiling a little.

"I suppose I might have warned you before… But I wanted to make sure you would remember it," he rationalised. "So long as you're sure that you will stay safe, I won't worry. I would hate for anything to happen to you, that's all."

Kiku blushed slightly. "Y-your concern is touching… But I am fine," he stuttered in response.

"Your face has turned red again… Is everything alright?" Herakles asked, confused as to why Kiku seemed to be having trouble speaking coherently.

"I am fine! It was a little embarrassing to know you felt such concern for me, that's all," Kiku responded.

"Why is that embarrassing? I'm your friend, so I should feel concern for you, shouldn't I?" Herakles tried to make sense of Kiku's reactions.

"Oh, well, I suppose so… Ah, forgive me, I am not trying to be rude to you, I just find such emotions slightly confusing, since I am not used to feeling such things after only knowing someone for a few weeks," Kiku continued, really unsure about his own feelings.

"Is that so…? Hmm… I never really thought about it before," Herakles pondered a little more. "To me, these feelings are how I know that somebody is my friend… I think it would be stranger if I didn't feel anything for my friends, to be honest."

"Ah, you may be right there," Kiku smiled a little. "I have known all of my other friends for a long time now, so I was not sure what it felt like to make a new friend. Maybe this is just it."

"That's probably it," Herakles agreed. The two sat in silence for a moment.

"Are you still embarrassed?" Herakles asked a few seconds later.

"Eh… No, not really," Kiku replied.

"Good," the merman smiled widely at Kiku.

"Does anything embarrass you?" Kiku asked, realising that he had been left blushing several times now, while Herakles seemed completely unfazed.

"Hmm… I suppose I wear no clothes, so nakedness doesn't embarrass me… I am not embarrassed to show affection to my friends and family… Perhaps not. My society is far more open than yours. There are some situations where my kind prefers privacy though," he answered.

"Which situations?" Kiku pressed.

"Well… We find ourselves vulnerable when we are sick or injured, and prefer only to have those we trust completely visit us in our homes during that time… We prefer to sleep only with our family members… And of course, we wish for privacy when mating, generally. It's the polite thing to do," Herakles detailed.

"Those situations… It seems completely reasonable for someone to feel embarrassed or uncomfortable at those times. I understand," Kiku evaluated.

"And yet you feel embarrassed by more situations than me," Herakles stated.

"Ah, well… Like you mentioned, our societies are different. Where I am from, there is a lot of emphasis on privacy and discreetness…. So even things like nakedness or kissing someone in public can be seen as rude," Kiku tried to explain.

"Hmm… I see," Herakles considered.

Silence fell as the two looked down on the shimmering waters, now taking on a distinctively orange hue as the afternoon sun began to make its way towards the horizon. Herakles blinked.

"How did the time pass so quickly?" He asked. Kiku shook his head.

"I'm not sure… But I suppose we could spend a whole day philosophising about it, considering the way today flew past," he replied.

"We could… But it will have to wait for another day. We both have to be back before sunset. We can't risk it," Herakles decided.

"Alright… I'll see you later then," Kiku stood, smiling.

"See you soon," Herakles smiled in response, diving into the water as Kiku made his way towards the shore. This time though, Herakles couldn't help but feel anxious, hanging about just underneath the surface until he was sure Kiku had returned safely to the land, keeping an eye out for more of his kind.


	10. Chapter 10

Hope you don't hate people dying. They're unnamed but still...

The story's beginning to take off and Herakles is getting closer to his own realisations. Kiku and his family remain largely oblivious but they are beginning to figure out the cycle of death everyone's caught in. Maybe they can fix it? Time will tell...

* * *

Mei looked out over the vast blue sea in front of her. Today was two weeks since Kiku and Herakles had gone swimming together, and she had decided to go with Li to the beach to relax. Her brother was inflating a beach ball behind her, sitting on the warm sand while Mei herself had her feet in the surf. More humans were already swimming in the water, the day being warm and the people having decided to cool down in the sea. The sun, although not yet fully in the sky, was already baking, and indeed was close to being fully risen. Mei turned to her brother, deciding that they were wasting enough time with the ball.

"Leave it there, let's just go swim," she insisted. "We can always play volleyball later."

Li shook his head. "It like, will only take a minute, be patient," he answered. "Why don't you set out the net in the meantime?"

Mei pouted, but thought it over regardless. "Well… Okay. It would be fun, and later on in the day it might be too hot to do anything but soak in the water." She walked a little way back up the beach to set out the net for their game.

"Today is a warm day. There are likely to be humans out in the water. Today is a good day to strike," Helene detailed to the gathered merpeople, who listened intently. Among them was Sadik, who looked around, wondering where Herakles was today. His confusion was mirrored in Lukas.

"Mama, will we wait for Herakles first?" He asked.

"Herakles is probably watching for threats to us… We can't let our guard down, even if we are attacking. We should leave him where he is," the mother advised.

Most of the gathered merpeople seemed to accept this explanation, except for Sadik, who remained suspicious, completely unsure as to whether Herakles was even doing anything up there. Still, he knew better than to argue directly with Helene over this. He could always spy on the brat later.

Less than an hour later, the merpeople were ready to strike, now just metres from the shallow water where people were still bathing, splashing about and otherwise having fun. Mei and Li were just wrapping up their game on the beach, already decided that this point would be the last. Li jumped up, slapping the ball well over the net and Mei's head. It landed in the water, creating a hollow splash. He grinned triumphantly. Victory was sweet. His sister groaned.

"Like, go get the ball Mei, then we can finish up and go swimming," he called, and she nodded before taking a few steps towards the water. Then she stopped, her mouth hanging open in a gasp.

"What's wrong?" Li asked behind her.

"Someone… Just disappeared," she stated, taking a step back.

Seconds later, the attack started.

Merpeople jumped from the water in all directions, dragging frightened and unsuspecting swimmers (who had made the mistake of gathering to the spot where the first human had been taken to investigate) beneath the waves. The water began to turn crimson with shed blood. At least a dozen were pulled to their deaths before the masses had managed to make it to shore, believing themselves to be safe. But even then, merpeople threw themselves at the humans, clawing at whatever they could reach safely without leaving the water. A couple of unfortunate people were caught by the leg and dragged screaming to a watery grave.

Mei ran back towards her brother, clearly fearing for them. Li saw an opportunity to protect them both.

"Get behind the net. Leave the ball," he instructed. The teenagers scurried up the beach and sat behind the netting, bodies tense and ready to defend themselves. Parallel to the sea as it was, the merpeople couldn't touch them without getting caught in the nets, even if a massive wave brought the sea to them. One mermaid looked up at them and hissed, showing off her teeth and clearly trying to scare them. But then she returned to the deeper ocean, not wanting to risk getting beached or left behind. After a few minutes, almost all of the other surviving humans had fled, and the seas calmed again as the merpeople appeared to withdraw. Mei left the safety of the net and began to walk towards the water, where their family's beach ball was still floating, a little further away than it had been before. Li saw the water ripple.

"Mei, don't go further!" He yelled, just as a hand reached out of the water. Mei leapt back, and the merperson's claws only managed to shred her swimming costume, doing Mei herself little harm.

"Don't worry about the ball, let's just get out of here before those things come back. This is like, not cool at all," her brother continued, already packing up the net and getting ready to leave.

Mei nodded numbly. "Okay…" She breathed, running back up the beach, while the rippling of the sea continued. The merpeople had not yet gone. They did, in fact, stay lurking for several more hours, taking a few more humans stupid enough to return.

Kiku smiled as he looked back over at Herakles. The merman had met him at the rocks that morning as usual, and they had spent the whole day talking and comparing each other's lives, and generally getting closer as beings. It was beginning to get late, and Herakles seemed on edge, but Kiku was generally relaxed and calm.

"Is everything okay?" The human asked his friend, moving over to tap his shoulder lightly when the merman did not respond. "Herakles…?"

"Kiku… You need to leave," Herakles stated, steadfast.

"What?" Kiku was really confused. "Why do I need to leave?"

Herakles sighed. "My people… Were meant to be attacking the humans today. When they get back and find I'm not there… They'll come looking for me… And if they find you here with me they will kill you," he explained matter-of-factly.

The human grimaced, not liking the sound of that at all. His eyes shot wide open. "Okay then… I suppose I must go… See you tomorrow, Herakles," he breathed, his body acting almost on instinct, looking genuinely shaken, as he jumped across the rocks to the shore before running home as fast as he could, fearing for his life. Herakles just at that moment got the sudden urge to call Kiku back, hold him and reassure him that he would never let any harm come to him. The merman's eyes widened. This was a stronger feeling than before. It was confusing, and he wasn't sure what to do about it.

When Kiku got back home, the panic from earlier beginning to dissipate just slightly now that he was safe and secure, there was uproar.

"Where the hell were you? I thought you had been eaten or something!" Yao fussed as soon as he walked through the door, instantly sweeping him into a crushing hug.

"Ah, I was just out… With a friend," Kiku tried to explain. "What's all the commotion for?"  
"Like… You didn't hear about it?" Li asked, curious.

"Not really, no…"

"There were merpeople right on the beach! They dragged a whole load of people under the water and took them away! We had to leave our ball in the water and flee, and they still ripped up my swimsuit as we tried to escape!" Mei ranted, clearly shaken.

Kiku visibly gulped. Clearly, Herakles hadn't been exaggerating. There really had been an attack. He really had been in danger.

"It was totally uncool. What gives them the right to do that? We were lucky we had the net set up on the beach, there's no way they'd have tried to get through that," Li continued.

"Perhaps it was a counter-attack for when we killed their people before?" Kasem offered from the kitchen, trying to be at least a little diplomatic.

"Well, there are often increased attacks around this time of year… That could be it… In which case, maybe things will calm down within a few weeks," Hue agreed.

"Aiyah, it had better calm down… But to be safe, I want all of you to promise not to go out to the sea tomorrow. Stay within the confines of town, for all our sakes," Yao looked around all of his siblings, as though daring anyone to disagree with him.

Nobody argued with him.

Even later on that evening, things were tense in the household. Several of the siblings seemed shaken from earlier, and Kiku couldn't help but think everything over again and again, unable to set his mind at ease. His younger sister had definitely been in harm's way, and even though she had escaped injury, she still looked a tiny bit nervous. And where had Kiku been? He had been out sitting on some rocks, conversing with a creature not unlike the ones who had threatened her. He felt like slapping himself as soon as the words had entered his head. This was Herakles he was talking about, not some monster. He wasn't like the others, he tried to remind himself. But regardless, things were definitely getting more serious…

And what was he to do about Yao banning him from the coastline? He had already promised to meet Herakles again tomorrow. Kiku knew it was dangerous, but he was also, deep down, convinced that Herakles would protect him from danger, and that it wouldn't be an issue to disobey his brother's orders. Overall though, he was torn.

"Kiku… Hey, Kiku!" Yong Soo's shouting brought him out of his thoughts.

"Hmm?" He looked up at his cousin, curious as to what he was thinking about. By now, it was later on in the evening, and the family had begun to eat dinner.

"Where were you today, Kiku? You never told us," he grinned annoyingly. "Were you with a girl or something?"

Kiku blushed bright red. "Ah… No, of course I wasn't!" He tried to argue.

"Where were you then?" Yong Soo pressed, trying to get information out of the older boy.

"Aiyah, leave Kiku alone, I'm sure he was being sensible and appropriate as always," Yao stepped in, giving Kiku a knowing look. Clearly he thought he was doing him a favour.

"Well then, like, where was he? He seemed completely to miss everything that was going on," Li questioned.

"We missed it too, you know… We only know anything happened because you were there," Hue argued back.

"Hey, didn't Kiku already say he was out with his friend?" Kasem remembered.

"But I swear I saw Feliciano out with his brother this morning on my way to the beach… And Ludwig's working today, isn't he?" Mei looked over at Kiku confusedly.

"And what, Kiku can't have more than 2 friends?" Kyung Soo added into the conversation moodily before falling silent for most of the rest of the evening.

"I can't argue with you there…" Li stopped questioning, Mei smiling a little before returning to eating. Yong Soo looked like he wanted to say more, but stopped, especially when he saw Yao's disapproving look. Yao still looked pleased with himself. He winked at Kiku. God, he still really thought Kiku was out there somewhere with a girl, and that it was their secret, didn't he?

Kiku sighed. He would definitely have to set Yao straight one of these days. But until then, he had to find a way to get around his rules and back to the coast to see Herakles. If he was caught, the girlfriend thing would be a helpful alibi…


	11. Chapter 11

Oh Tama. He gave me an excuse to write Feliciano and Ludwig into the story again, while also having a comedic moment. In seriousness, there will be more Axis Trio moments.  
And Herakles. He's just acting... Slightly lovestruck if anything. Without even realising it.  
There's also going to be a week time skip between this chapter and the next in universe. And then things will happen. Things that may just involve a flash of red and general anxiety for everyone involved.

* * *

Herakles was worried.

He was sure that Kiku had reached home safely, after he had sprinted home last night, but this didn't stop the feeling of concern that seemed ever present. His people had attacked the humans at the beach. The rocks were so near, and he knew that a few merpeople were suspicious as to why he had been absent from the assault. He couldn't risk them catching him with Kiku. They would slaughter him. He closed his eyes while he thought. Kiku had told him to meet him again today. He couldn't just not turn up; that would be rude, and could risk worrying the human. But there was another way he could keep Kiku safe. He could try to throw off any potential followers by taking a less direct route to the rocks.

So instead of heading towards the shore, Herakles swam parallel to it, winding around submerged boulders, looking a little as if he was hunting instead of travelling to meet someone. He believed that he was sure to throw off any pursuers this way. A shoal of small grey fish scattered at the sight of him, and Herakles pretended to give chase for a while, before weaving around an arch within the crimson coral that was just ahead of him and turning back towards the shore, noticing the increased sunlight that filtered down beneath the waves as he got closer to the shallow sea around the rocks.

This increase of distance to his route added quite a bit of time to Herakles's journey, so much so that by the time he had actually reached the liaison point, Kiku was getting worried. Herakles couldn't have forgotten, so where was he? The human leant forwards on the rock, staring into the azure water below in concern. Surely the merman wasn't hurt somewhere? There was no way for Kiku to find out, nor rescue Herakles if that was the case; the ocean was vast. He could only continue to hope that Herakles was fine, or at least that he would be able to make it somewhere safe to recover if he was injured.

When Herakles actually broke the water and looked towards Kiku, the human seemed on edge.

"Are you okay?" He asked, pulling himself onto the rock to sit by his friend. "You didn't see any others of my kind, did you?"

"No… I was just wondering whether you were alright," Kiku admitted.

"Oh… Well, of course… I just needed to take extra time to make sure no-one was following me… My people are getting a little suspicious of why I am gone for so long everyday," Herakles explained.

"Oh… Are they very suspicious? Maybe you should stay with your family tomorrow if you think they might continue to follow you, to try to quell their suspicions," the human suggested.

"Hmm… That might be a good idea," Herakles admitted.

Kiku nodded. "We'll do that tomorrow then."

Silence fell for a few minutes.

"Kiku… Perhaps I could try some human food?" Herakles broached, curious.

"Ah, well, I don't have any on me right about now…" Kiku began. "But, I could bring some for you the day after tomorrow, and you could try it," he suggested.

"That would be great… Thanks." Herakles smiled.

"Is there anything in particular that you would like, or should I just bring whatever I feel like making?" Kiku furthered.

"Well… I don't really know much about human food, so how about you decide?" Herakles answered, sending Kiku into deep thought for a while.

"I shall bring sushi then," he replied after a long while.

Herakles vaguely remembered the mention of sushi from before. "Ah, that has fish in it," he recognised.

"Yes… So out of all the dishes I know, it would probably be the one most enjoyable for you," the human decided.

"And I will find you some seaweed to eat too." Herakles smiled wide.

"Ah… Please ensure first it is not poisonous to my kind…" Kiku fretted.

"Uh? Poisonous? Does seaweed make you sick? I thought your kind ate that too…" Herakles was confused.

"Just some varieties; we eat different things to you." Kiku sighed.

For most of the rest of the day the two friends discussed food and different types of seaweed, before they had to part ways for the evening. While Kiku headed straight home, Herakles took a long, winding route that passed by several shoals of fish. He made sure to catch some on the way to make it look as though he had been hunting.

"Eh? Returning from hunting so late? What, did ya have a bad day out there brat?" Sadik teased as Herakles returned to the pod.

"So what if I did… Jerk. I fill my day with more than just hunting."

"Yeah, ya also sleep and get beached in front of bloodthirsty humans… Ow! I was just joking, ya know." Sadik rubbed his head from where Herakles had hit him.

"Your sense of humour sucks," Herakles stated flatly, but Sadik was cut off before he could respond by a call behind him.

"Herakles! There you are! Were you sleeping out past the reef again? You know it's not safe to nap out there," his mother chided, swimming up to meet him.

"Geh… Damn mama's boy." Sadik grumbled. "Somethin' funny's goin' on, this isn't the first time he's been back so late without any good reason, and he was never like that before he got captured by those humans…" The red-tailed merman muttered to himself. Wanting to be alone with his thoughts he swam off to think of ways he could ascertain what Herakles was really up to.

"We don't go out hunting together enough… There's a lot more we can achieve working together," Loukas insisted, swimming around the bright red coral to where Herakles was hiding, under a large, green bloom of seaweed.

"Hmm." His older brother nodded. "It is easier to hunt with two of us."

"It sure is," his brother agreed before getting down to business. "Okay, so I'll swim after some fish and chase them towards the arch,"- Loukas pointed to an arch of rock in the distance- "And you can stretch the net across and hold it tight. Once the fish are snared, we can kill them."

Herakles nodded, holding the worn net, made of woven seaweed, in his hands.

"Okay then, good luck," he smiled at his younger brother.

Loukas smiled in return, swimming off into the distance while Herakles set up a trap for the fish before hiding behind another large patch of seaweed, this one orange, next to the rock arch, net still held in his hands. Almost a minute later, Loukas had found some edible, medium-sized fish, and began after the school, swimming around but not through it, slowly herding the group back towards where his brother was waiting. Eager to escape, many of the fish darted towards the arch and ploughed into the net, and Herakles struck, holding the net firm as the fish got more and more stuck, before moving quickly to the side to grab the other side of the net, catching most of the fish in the net and tying it up quickly.

"Did you get any?" Asked Loukas, swimming back towards his brother, green tail shimmering slightly from the light filtering through from the surface of the water. Herakles smiled and held up the net to show his brother his catch.

"Quite a lot," he replied.

"Ah, great! That's a decent number". Loukas grinned, patting the older merman's back with one of his webbed hands.

Herakles nodded. "So, what should we do next?" He asked.

"Well, bring those back to the pod, to start with… Then, well, we can hunt a little more, or maybe even relax for a while," Loukas answered. His brother nodded, and they returned to their home.

"Tama! You know the rules about stealing fish from the fridge!" Yao screeched, running after the defenceless cat with his wok. Tama smartly decided to make himself scarce, scarpering off with great speed.

"Not again! We'd better go look for Tama, no way is Yao gonna find him now," Mei commented, looking to Kiku. "I'll look by the beach, and you can go further into town, okay?"

Kiku nodded. "Okay, we'll do that. Call me if you find him," he waved his phone in her direction to accentuate his point.

Mei nodded, running out of the door, and Kiku followed, turning at the end of the garden path and running in the opposite direction.

Ludwig had been having a normal morning, walking the dogs and trying to keep the house clean despite Gilbert, when all of a sudden an almighty crash had come from the direction of the front room. Running there straight away, he came face to face with Feliciano, holding what appeared to be Kiku's cat protectively. The window was open behind him, curtains blowing in the wind and leaf litter making its way into the house. Ludwig couldn't work out how weak, timid Feliciano had opened a closed window from the other side. Unable to come up with words to describe how bizarre the scene was, the German stammered.

"W…What the hell is going on here?" He eventually managed to ask. Feliciano's face morphed into one of abject terror.

"K-Kiku's brother was out chasing this little guy again! We have to keep him safe, Ludwig, we can't just let him get beaten up, he's a cute kitty really," he cried.

Ludwig sighed, placing a hand against his forehead in frustration. "Feliciano," he began. "We cannot keep someone else's cat just because you feel bad for it. Tama should know by now to stop stealing food," he gave a stern look to the cat, who only miaowed cutely, trying to gain sympathy.

"But… Can't we at least make sure that we give him to Kiku? It's not fair that Yao's always the one to punish him… He's Kiku's cat," Feliciano tried to argue. His German friend gave in.

"Fine… You can find Kiku and make sure he gets his cat back in one piece," he relented. "So long as you leave me to my cleaning, and make sure not to do stupid things like breaking into people's houses again, clear?"  
Feliciano nodded. "But… Won't you come with me to find Kiku first?" He hit Ludwig with his best puppy dog eyes.

"Alright, alright, fine…" Ludwig sighed deeply.

"Yay!" Feliciano cheered.

Kiku ran past the fountain in the middle of the town, heading straight up the road that ran the spine of the settlement. Where could Tama be…? He really had hidden himself well this time…

"Kiku! Kiku, look what we found!" Feliciano yelled from somewhere within the maze of buildings, running towards Kiku… and then into Kiku.

"Look where you're going, idiot," Ludwig sighed, coming up behind him. Kiku jumped back a little from the sudden contact, and then looked to his friend.

"Is everything alright?" The small Japanese man asked, before noticing the black blob in his friend's arms. "Ah! Tama, you found him," he smiled at the little cat.

"Yeah! We couldn't let your brother get hold of him, so we brought him here to you! He is your cat after all, not Yao's…" Feliciano laughed a little, handing the pet back to Kiku.

"Thank you Feli," Kiku nodded at his friend, while Ludwig took a deep breath.

"Well… good I guess. It's good to see you by the way Kiku," he looked a little red, possibly from the bizarre nature of the day's events.

"It is good to see the two of you as well," Kiku replied to his friends.

"Yeah, yeah! We need to meet up again sometime soon, we can eat pasta, and stay up all night, and…"

Ludwig cut in at this point. "Sure, sure. That would be good. Anyway, we need to be going now, and you probably should get home before your brother too Kiku. See you soon," he began to drag Feliciano behind him as he headed back towards his house, wanting to restore the tranquillity of his day as soon as possible.

"Ah, see you both later then," Kiku called after them, before turning around and heading back towards the house, getting out his phone on the way.

"Mei, I found Tama and…"

"Aiyah! Wherever did you find him Kiku? I swear I searched the whole town!" Yao remarked upon returning that evening to find Tama in Kiku's arms still.

"He was with Feliciano… Who I ran into in the main plaza… Quite literally," his brother explained, setting his pet down onto the floor. Tama padded over to the sofa in the living room.

"Come on Yao, you know Tama never lets you catch him when you're mad, he's smarter than that," Mei giggled a little.

Yao sighed, turning his back on his siblings to glare in the general direction of the cat. "Such a smart cat should learn to stop stealing food," he frowned at Tama, who only mewed back 'innocently'.

"Mischievous little thing," Yao muttered, not noticing Kiku cooking fish and packing it away in tubs behind his back.

The next morning, Kiku headed back out towards the rock where he usually met Herakles, the boxes of food held in his hands. Climbing over the rocks was more difficult than usual due to his load, but eventually he managed to reach the usual meeting place, taking a seat on the wet stone and waiting for Herakles to appear. Only a few minutes later, his friend came into view, emerging from the sea with a smile on his face.

"Good morning Kiku…" He greeted, hoisting himself up onto the rock, water dripping from the edge of his turquoise tail as he settled himself next to Kiku. "I went hunting yesterday… My brother and I managed to catch a lot of fish, so it was very successful… What about you?" He asked, curious.

"Tama stole more fish from the fridge, and my older brother chased him around for hours… I eventually found him, but I really wish he wouldn't keep doing that," Kiku sighed a little. "I did manage to cook something for you though."

Herakles's face lit up. "Really? Can I try some of it?" He asked.

"Well, I did make it so that you could try," Kiku smiled, showing Herakles the tubs of food and then taking off the lids, revealing the samples he had cooked the night before.

"It is nothing too complicated… Some marinated fish with seaweed and rice," he admitted. "But then, I didn't intend for it to be anything too filling… I wanted it to be just a snack."

"It looks delicious, I can't wait to try some." Herakles smiled over at Kiku, leaning towards his friend. Kiku nodded, pulling a pair of chopsticks from one of the tubs and handing the implements to Herakles.

"What are these for?" The merman asked, confused.

"You use them to eat with… To pick up the food. Using your fingers is rude," Kiku tried to explain.

"Ah…" Herakles nodded, and proceeded to stab one of the bits of fish with one of the chopsticks, managing to get it into his mouth with a little effort, as the morsel would not stay still on the stick.

"It's really hard," he commented.

"That's because you're doing it completely wrong," Kiku replied. "You're meant to use them both, and hold the food between them."

Herakles now looked even more confused than he had been before. "How do you do that?" He enquired, innocently.

"Here, I suppose I'll just show you," Kiku reached out, grabbing Herakles's hand and positioning his fingers so that he was holding the chopsticks correctly, blushing slightly at the unfamiliar feeling of Herakles's damp skin against his hand. At the same time, Herakles felt his heart beat just a little bit faster, noticing the odd feeling from before was stronger than ever, and that it was almost beginning to cause his hands and feet to tingle slightly. The feeling was kind of… pleasant.

"That's the correct way to hold them… But it is a little bit tricky to learn to use them like that properly… So let me know if you think you need more help," Kiku admitted.

"Your human eating implements are rather strange and complicated," Herakles frowned. "But thank you Kiku." He smiled, trying to pick up the fish again, but failing, his grip loosening at just the wrong time and dropping the food back into the tub.

"Oops." The non-human smiled wider, feeling free for some reason, and laughed. Surprisingly, Kiku found himself chucking a little as well: laughter was just that contagious.

"Do you want some help?" The human asked his friend.

"If you wouldn't mind," Herakles nodded, letting Kiku's hand return to rest above his own, guiding Herakles to finally eat his first piece of fish. He chewed for a while before looking to Kiku.

"It's really good," he complimented.

"Ah, I'm glad," Kiku answered, happy that his friend was enjoying it.

"Would you help me eat the rest of it?" Herakles asked, eager to continue eating the food but aware he still hadn't even grasped the basics of using chopsticks.

"Of course… I am just happy you enjoy it so much," Kiku agreed, helping Herakles eat the rest of his little snack carefully and patiently.

As Herakles returned to the pod that day, still buoyant from the time out with Kiku and feeling like he might just have grasped the knack to handling human eating implements, Sadik watched on, now convinced that something was most definitely going on. There was no way Herakles _wasn't_ hiding something, and he was determined to find out what it was.


	12. Chapter 12

In which Kiku meets someone new, Sadik figures everything out and Herakles remains blissfully unaware.

Oh Sadik. He's not really a bad guy. He just has absolutely no idea how to talk to humans without scaring them.

* * *

This suspicion carried on for another week before Sadik decided to act, finally setting off after Herakles one morning with the intent of following the merman discreetly for as long as it took to find out his real intentions. Herakles again took a roundabout route to try to avoid leading anyone to Kiku, but as he swam off around an underwater rock formation, pretending to be hunting, Sadik noticed something shiny up on the surface. Gut feeling and curiosity taking over him, he headed up to meet the air, looking around at the human world as he surfaced. He quickly caught sight of the shiny object: it was the zip from a human's coat. Sadik studied the human more intently. He was clearly male, quite young, and small with brown eyes and black straight hair. To Sadik, he looked pretty, like the sort of person merpeople usually preyed upon. Sadik though, wanted merely to play around with this particular human. He noticed his target sitting down upon some rocks-was he waiting for someone? - And decided to make a move. He swam slowly over to the rock, making as little noise as possible and mostly submerging his body again as he got closer. Had the human looked down at the water, he would have noticed the flashy, vibrant tail of the approaching merman. He didn't. When he was close enough, he drew his body from the water slowly, smiling as the human still remained oblivious before speaking.

"Ya know, you're probably the best lookin' human I've seen in a while", he called, smiling a little wolfishly.

Kiku had been looking over at the shore, thinking about how Feliciano had called him the night before arranging a sleepover for the weekend, and how exactly he was going to manage the hyper Italian being just a little too damn close for an entire night, when he heard a deep, husky voice behind him that made him whirl his head back around towards the source. The human gasped upon noticing the merman who was definitely _not_ Herakles. With his flamboyant red tail and bone mask obscuring his eyes, this merman looked dangerous. Kiku was suddenly very on edge.

"Um… T-thank you, I suppose," he stuttered, feeling like he should at least say _something_.

"I mean it," Sadik leaned against the rocks to pull himself up so that he was face to face with Kiku. "You really are something cute… You don't see that every day."

Kiku blushed bright red. "I… I would not consider myself cute…" He stammered, completely unsure of himself. How was he meant to deal with this merman? He acted nothing like Herakles at all, and Kiku had little experience in these matters to begin with.

"Ah, well, maybe ya should… There are people where I'm from who would literally kill for someone like you," he leered. No need to tell the human that he would be the one getting killed.

Kiku managed to catch the undertone behind the words though, and became increasingly on edge.

"W-what do you want from me?" He asked, deciding to cut to the chase. If this merman was to kill him, then he'd rather it be quick.

"Just a little fun… Nothing too serious," Sadik reached out with a webbed hand, stroking a finger down Kiku's cheek before he felt vibrations in the water. Someone else was coming! Not wanting another merperson to notice this interesting human and kill them right when he was beginning to have fun, he decided to withdraw.

"Heh, I gotta go now though… But maybe I'll see ya around baby… A pretty face like yours is always welcome," he smiled all too sweetly a final time before loosening his grip on the rock, falling back into the sea effortlessly and swimming away, making sure to avoid the path of the other merman, and instead settling behind some rocks to watch the human some more. Seconds later, he saw perhaps the only merman he did not expect to see. Well, things just got a lot more interesting…

"Kiku? Are you okay?" Herakles pulled himself up onto the rock and looked his friend over, while Kiku couldn't keep the panic from his face. What was that? What had happened there? Kiku had honestly thought that the merman would kill him for a moment, and he was still terrified. When he didn't respond, Herakles got more worried.

"Kiku…? Did something happen?"

Kiku looked over at Herakles, trying to calm himself as much as possible. He couldn't just tell him about what had happened: he couldn't be sure how the merman would react, and whether he would get in trouble.

"Nothing's wrong," he tried to reassure Herakles, looking up at him, the panic successfully hidden for the moment. Herakles let it drop.

"Okay then…" He still sounded a little on edge, but didn't say anything more.

"Anyway…" Kiku was anxious to move the conversation on. "How have you been?"

"Ah…" Herakles thought for a moment, smiling lazily. "I've been pretty good… My brother went hunting again yesterday while I was here with you, and managed to bring back a whole tuna… Needless to say, my family ate well."

A small smile found its way onto Kiku's face. "Tuna? I can imagine you must have eaten well…" The human closed his eyes, thinking of the large, delicious fish.

"Mm," Herakles nodded. "What about you? Has anything interesting happened to you?"

Kiku put thoughts of the other merman aside. "Well, one of my friends invited me over for the weekend," he said. "Which should be fun, so long as he doesn't invade my personal space too much. I don't appreciate it."

"Really?" Herakles smiled. "Spending time with your friends is nice… Although, I suppose that means that I won't see much of you over the weekend?" He guessed.

"Well, I'm going over Saturday and sleeping over his house, so I won't be here at all Saturday, although I should be on Sunday, probably after noon."

"Okay then," Herakles nodded. "That sounds like fun, I hope you have a good time."

"I'm sure I will," Kiku replied.

"Although… You said before that you didn't like people invading your personal space… What do you mean by that?" Herakles asked, furthering the conversation.

"Ah… You remember some time ago, when I said I didn't like being hugged or touched in other ways? That is more what I meant by personal space. My friend Feliciano… He doesn't really understand that other people might not like to be touched. He shows his affection rather… outwardly…" The human tried to explain, blushing red throughout the whole ordeal.

"Oh…" Herakles vaguely remembered the conversation he had had with the human a while ago about his dislike of hugs. "I understand… I suppose I might consider different actions to be going past my comfort zone, but we are all different…"

"Of course," Kiku seemed glad that someone understood his way of thinking. He knew that Herakles didn't necessarily feel the same way, but most other people just found his mannerisms odd. At least Herakles was giving him some chance to explain himself. Somehow, this thought made Kiku feel oddly happy, and he wasn't sure where the feeling had come from. Maybe it was just the type of friend Herakles was? Kiku was convinced that that had to be the case, unable to really come up with any other solution or answer.

Herakles meanwhile, found Kiku's little quirks to be fascinating rather than strange, and perhaps even a little… Cute. The merman's eyes widened as the thought passed into his mind. Since when did he find the human cute? Kiku wasn't a child or an animal or anything! Silently, so as not to make his friend think anything was wrong, he filed the information away with the other strange feelings he promised to investigate later, and carried on his conversation with Kiku, listening to him talk at length about his friends and their lives.

"You see, Feliciano may be over affectionate, but he is also sweet, and he's an excellent cook," he described, smiling at the thought of his friends. "However, Ludwig can be the complete opposite of him at times… So stoic and serious! It doesn't mean he's not friendly, and he actually can cook great cakes when he wants to. He does sometimes get into arguments with Feliciano though, as Ludwig's a bit of a workaholic, and Feliciano can be lazy and often whines about having to do work." He detailed, possibly going on just a little bit.

"Wow… Your friends seem really different from each other… And yet they still get on?" The merman responded, trying to spur on the conversation.

"Yes… They are quite close friends actually. Deep down, Ludwig really does care for Feliciano, and Feliciano looks up to Ludwig as someone he can rely on, even if the two of them find it hard to see eye to eye a lot of the time. It can be rather amusing," Kiku answered.

"Hmm… I suppose I understand where you're coming from." Herakles nodded, continuing the conversation.

"Yes… They are my friends… I wouldn't change them for anything, even if they can be a mystery to me sometimes… They get almost completely naked in summer, and just lie out in their gardens like that! It's entirely improper!" Kiku screwed his face up a little in embarrassment.

"Ah, yes… I remember you said before that nakedness is frowned upon in your society… So why do they do it?" Herakles couldn't quite understand why Kiku's friends would do something so taboo.

"Well, I suppose they are from a different part of the world to me… Where they come from, it's not such a terrible thing to be naked in public… I do wish they'd remember how uncomfortable it makes me though," Kiku tried to explain it to Herakles so that it would make sense.

"Oh, right," Herakles nodded. "I can understand why you feel that way. It is interesting that humans from different places on the land can differ so much."

"Does it happen with merpeople too?" Kiku queried, curious.

"I suppose so…"

For the rest of the afternoon, the two friends discussed the varied cultures and peoples inhabiting both the sea and the land, comparing and contrasting the different ethnicities and ways of life. By the time the sun was setting and the two were ready to return home, the thoughts of the other merman Kiku had met earlier had faded from his mind, and he was able to return home without worry… Until, getting through the door, he caught sight of a piece of red fabric on a neighbour's coat… Fabric the exact same colour as that merman's tail. Suddenly, Kiku was apprehensive again. Who was that merman from before? Would he be back the next day? What would happen if he met Herakles? Kiku didn't want to see his friend fight another of his kind, especially considering the repercussions it would cause. And yet somehow, the human knew that Herakles wanted nothing more than to protect him, and so would fight if necessary.

Kiku didn't know if he liked or hated that thought. Or why he was so worried about Herakles, who could clearly take care of himself. He didn't really want to follow that line of questioning too much.

Meanwhile, Herakles was heading back to the pod, pleased that his methods to avoid leading anyone to Kiku seemed to be working, and completely oblivious to Sadik watching him, pondering his strange day. Okay, so the older merman hadn't stayed around all afternoon to watch the human and Herakles talk. That was boring. But he did at least now know that Herakles had been lying about going 'hunting' or 'scouting' all this time. That at least, was important blackmail for the future. At the very least, it would be fun to tease Herakles with this newfound knowledge. Not to mention the identity of his little human friend… Who would also be a lot of fun to play around with. Just a little bit. The flashy merman smiled, eyes lighting up beneath the mask covering his face. He had always known something had been going on. Well, things just got a whole lot more interesting…


	13. Chapter 13

Kiku spends some time with his friends, Feliciano acts rather creepy for a few minutes, Sadik visits again and Herakles finally finds out about it. And perhaps realises something else.

Feliciano's little ominous thing is rather out of character, but could be foreshadowing. Maybe.

And Sadik is again not a bad guy. Although he really makes Herakles mad this time. Maybe that's just because he really doesn't like him. I think Sadik's more of an ally than an enemy overall though.

This is more or less the last chapter of the pre-romance friendship. Although it will take a couple more chapters for the issues to be resolved (more on that next chapter though).

* * *

"Ah, and then there's this one… I painted this one with watercolour. It's of that storm last month, you can tell right?" Feliciano smiled, watching his friends look over his latest works of art… At least, those that were finished.

"Ah, it is lovely Feli, you must have put a lot of work into it," Kiku smiled in return at his friend.

"Oh, yes," Ludwig nodded, trying to keep up with the conversation despite not really knowing what to say on the subject. Art was not his strong point.

"Oh, I did," Feli replied, looking his canvas over again. "I spent hours painting it, and then weeks looking back over the photos I'd taken, trying to get inspired. And then there was a bit over here that just wasn't working, and I had to figure out what had gone wrong and then repainted that bit… And the blue over there was so hard to mix up correctly, and I ran out of it several times. Ah, I need to get better at getting the right amounts of paints for what I need to do," he rambled, still smiling at Ludwig and Kiku, to check they could still keep up with him.

"That sounds very annoying," Kiku empathised, still smiling.

"I do enjoy my art though… It's relaxing, and fun to do, and the results are well worth the effort," he grinned. "What about the two of you? Have you done anything creative recently?" Feliciano asked, continuing the conversation.

"Ah, well, I haven't really been drawing or anything like that… You know I like reading more than anything," Ludwig answered, still feeling a little awkward.

"I have been drawing some things… Mostly just characters from games and similar… Perhaps next time we meet I can show you?" Kiku responded, generally liking the talk about creative pursuits.

"Yeah! I'd really love that Kiku!" Feli grinned widely, getting excited again at the idea.

"Well, you know I don't mind you two showing me art-related things," Ludwig agreed, smiling just a little. Deep down, the German actually appreciated art… Even if he did prefer reading more himself.

"Okay then, that sounds like a plan," Kiku nodded in finality, before Feliciano began rambling over ideas for things he'd like to draw before the next time he met Kiku and Ludwig.

"Anyway, have you been up to anything interesting lately, Kiku?" Feliciano asked later on that evening, as he was busy cooking up pasta for the 3 friends to eat.

"Well, I went to the beach earlier this week," Kiku told from his spot sitting at the table, alluding to his time spent with Herakles without going into any sort of detail that could give the game away before changing the subject to avoid further scrutiny. "Of course, as well as that I have been spending time with my family, and helping out around the house generally. Overall, I suppose I have not been too busy," he summed up, nodding slightly as he spoke. Well, at least he hadn't been busy during the time he had not been spending with Herakles.

"Ah, that sounds cool," Feliciano grinned, accepting Kiku's vague details. "I went out to the market earlier in the week, and I got to pet this pretty cat, it was so cute." He rambled. "But then Lovino got mad at me for taking too long getting all of the vegetables we needed for dinner…"

Ludwig resisted the urge to facepalm at Feliciano's description. Honestly, sometimes the Italian was so difficult for him to understand… "As for me, I have mostly been following my regular routine. Training my dogs, reading books and manuals…"

"You read a lot," Feliciano giggled. "Can you write at all? Maybe you should become an author!" He pointed out, still smiling like a maniac.

"I am not sure I would particularly like writing as a career," Ludwig frowned, leaning back further against the counter he was positioned against. "I would like to think I would prefer something more hands on than that."

"Oh, well, you can do whatever you want, it was just a suggestion," the Italian backpedalled, looking a little worried. Kiku changed the subject, wanting to remove the sudden tense mood from the atmosphere.

"Feliciano, is the pasta done yet?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah." Feli nodded, moving to turn off the pans on the stove, ready to serve the food.

Meanwhile, Herakles sat inside the coral that made up his home, eating a caught fish with a sated look on his face. He had spent the day Kiku had spent with his friends hunting with his brother. The time had been good, and he had enjoyed it, but as he sat alone at the end of the day, he felt a little… Strange. As though somehow, going the day without seeing Kiku caused him to miss the human already. But it was silly, right? He would see him again after the sun's highest peak tomorrow. That was what Kiku had promised. And Herakles trusted the human to keep his promise. Somehow though, he still found himself worrying unnecessarily.

"I wonder where these feelings come from…" The merman wondered out loud. Was he getting sick or something? Herakles was unable to find any explanation for the feeling. If this carried on, he decided he would have to speak to someone about it. After all, it might interfere with his responsibilities in the pod if he didn't deal with it somehow.

"Hey, Kiku?" Feliciano asked later that night, as he lay next to his friends, sprawled out on the floor of the Italian's home.

"Hm?" Kiku looked towards Feli, smiling just a little.

"You promise that you'll always tell us if anything worries you, or if something happens?" The Italian asked, being strangely serious for once.

"Well… I'll try my best Feli, if that is what's appropriate. I would hate to burden or worry you though, unless it was something very serious. And of course, it would be terrible if I somehow got you into danger somehow," Kiku replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Hmm… I'm not sure," Feliciano replied. "I guess I just have this… Strange sort of feeling that something bad is going to happen… And I want to make sure that between us, we all make it out okay." The Italian suddenly appeared to be uncharacteristically serious and upfront, and Kiku frowned a little, not used to his friend being like this.

"A weird sense of foreboding? That is certainly very odd… Are you sure you haven't eaten something bad?" The smaller man replied, trying to comfort his friend if at all possible. Suddenly, as though a light switch had been flicked off without warning, Feliciano started, blinking a few times before smiling lazily, seemingly back to his usual self.

"Hmm… You're probably right Kiku. You often are." He moved forwards to hug Kiku, who leaned back, still not used to people in his personal space. "Still, at least we know we'll all stick together if anything does happen, right?"

Kiku nodded, watching as Feliciano curled up within his blankets, smiling still as he drifted off to sleep, while the Japanese remained awake, thinking. What an odd thing for Feli to say…

After bidding goodbye to Ludwig and Feliciano the next morning, Kiku returned to his house momentarily to drop his bags off (quickly greeting his siblings on the way, who seemed mostly busy with their own pursuits), before walking down towards the beach, to meet Herakles just like he'd promised. The man was a little bit early due to his sleepover with Ludwig and Feliciano having ended sooner than expected, as Ludwig had had work to do with his brother. Therefore, as Kiku clambered along the rocks towards their usual meeting spot, the sun had not quite yet reached the highest point in the sky. The time was about 11 o'clock in the morning.

Sadik swam up towards the surface, crimson tail flashing in the light shining down from above. Herakles had spent the entire day with the pod yesterday, and hadn't been to see the human from before at all. Sadik had been wondering if Herakles was going to meet the human that day. So he had decided to find his way to the rocks, curious as to whether he could see the man. As he broke the surface, he noticed that same human heading towards the rocks he had been sitting on the last time Sadik had met him. As Kiku sat down upon the rocks to wait for Herakles, Sadik swam closer, making sure this time to announce his presence early. He didn't want to scare the man this time after all.

"Hey, good mornin'!" He called, making Kiku jump, staring straight over at the merman in confusion and fear.

"W-What do you want from me?" He asked, on edge instantly.

"Hey, calm down, okay? I was only tryin' to have a little fun before, nothing serious, I promise," he held his hands up in defence, only being met with a cold glare from Kiku, who had learned to be suspicious of strange merpeople. "Alright, fine… I'm sorry about before, okay? I went too far." He looked back to the human, who looked only a little less wary.

"I do not consider what you did to be funny," he replied, frowning.

Sadik sighed. "Listen, I know we may have gotten off on the wrong... Fin? Foot? Whatever, ya get the idea. I don't mean to creep ya out, so perhaps we can just put that behind us?" He offered, trying to be cautious with his words so as to not make things worse.

Kiku seemed to be thinking it over for a while, clearly considering whether or not to forgive the merman. In truth, Kiku was still rather concerned, but he supposed it would be rude not to accept his apology… After all, it didn't mean he couldn't still be wary of the other.

"Alright then… So long as you're sure that it is all behind us," he replied, looking just a little less edgy.

Sadik smiled just a little, trying to make himself look as trustworthy as possible. "Great… So, maybe we should start from the beginning, yeah? I'm…" He looked down suddenly, hearing something in the water. "Shit…" He looked back up to Kiku. "Well, good that I got to make it up with ya I guess, but I'd better go now… See ya around." He dove almost instantly, barely making it out of view of Herakles, who surfaced moments later.

Kiku sat there, staring ahead at empty sea before Herakles appeared. What had just happened…?

"Kiku?" Herakles asked, as soon as he surfaced and noticed the look on his friend's face. "Did anything happen?"

"I… I am not really sure…" Kiku stuttered, finding the whole thing completely odd.

Herakles frowned, instantly worried. "You know you can tell me…" He assured, climbing up onto the rocks and looking Kiku over with concern.

"I…" Kiku looked down. Was it really worth worrying Herakles about?

"I mean," Herakles continued, his heart skipping a beat. What had happened to Kiku? Herakles felt extremely nervous, and wanted to make sure his friend was safe. He possibly felt just a little too concerned for these feelings to be ordinary friendship, but he didn't notice this. "I would trust you enough to tell you things… So you can trust me too. I promise I'll do my best to help you with whatever's on your mind."

Kiku nodded, looking down at the water. He had been concerned about the other merman and his actions from before for the last few days. It hadn't been at the forefront of his mind, but now a second appearance from the mysterious merman had brought the issue to his attention again. Despite the fact that he had apologised for before and seemed to be behaving far more reasonably and far less suspiciously, Kiku still wasn't sure he could trust him. Maybe Herakles could clear things up? At the very least, he could warn Kiku if this particular merman was in fact a threat. You never could tell after all.

"Well…" He began. "I have had some trouble… With another merperson, visiting this place before you arrive. He has appeared twice now, and each time… He makes me uneasy. He almost seems to be avoiding you, with how quickly he disappears. So I suppose more than anything… Is he a threat? Should I be cautious of him?" He finally voiced, not wanting to inconvenience Herakles, but concerned more than anything. Herakles jumped up immediately.

"What?! Kiku, what was his name?" He asked, on edge like never before. Kiku wasn't safe if there were other merpeople who knew about the time they spent here! Herakles had one name in particular in mind for a culprit.

"I… I did not ever learn his name," Kiku recoiled a little from Herakles's sudden energy, not used to seeing the usually lax merman like this.

"I see… Can you describe him?" Herakles asked, no less concerned.

"Well… He was very flashy… His tail and fins were red… And he seemed to be wearing some sort of mask on his face…" The human described, the worry evident in Herakles's eyes making him slightly afraid as well.

"Him…" Herakles almost hissed, his face scrunching up. So Sadik had been behind this! He turned to Kiku.

"You should be very wary of him… He's a complete jerk. I don't trust him myself," he told the human. Kiku nodded, filing the information away. So the merman was not very nice… Still, Herakles hadn't said he was downright dangerous… it seemed more to Kiku like Herakles just personally disliked the other merman than anything. He found it curious, but didn't question it. Herakles meanwhile, fell silent and took to thinking. If Sadik had found them here… Then it wouldn't be safe to keep meeting Kiku as he had been. He would have to do things differently somehow. After all, keeping Kiku safe was the most important thing.

That was when Herakles first started to truly question what he felt for Kiku.


	14. Chapter 14

Herakles's family are so open and supportive and just nice. They're really close so it figures.

If this story were to be split into two stories, this would be the last event in the first. By which I mean that the first 'arc' is coming to a close.

* * *

When Herakles returned to the pod that evening, he immediately rounded on Sadik. "What was the meaning of that earlier?" He demanded, swimming up to the other merman.

"Come on, I didn't mean anything by it. I just wanted to mess around a little… I never would have brought any harm to that human," Sadik shot back, clearly angry at the accusatory tone in Herakles's voice.

"You made him uncomfortable, you jerk. I don't care if it is a joke to you… I care about my friends enough to not want him to have to feel that way," Herakles hissed.

"Heh, friends huh? You seem a little too invested in that boy to be just a friend to him," Sadik sneered, snorting before Herakles pushed him harshly, turning to swim off.

"Shut up," Herakles answered, not feeling in the mood to talk, but at the same time with a racing mind and pounding heart. More than a friend…? Did Sadik really mean something like that? Herakles had to find out.

"Mama?" The merman called into the coral, swimming around the usual resting places his mother frequented, his hands wringing together nervously. He wasn't sure about this, but he knew that he couldn't keep it in any longer. The others had said that his mother wasn't out hunting, so she should be here somewhere…

"Herakles? Is that you?" Helene called from deeper within the formation, swimming outwards to meet her son. "Is everything alright? Did something happen?" She asked, noticing his nervousness through his voice, his face, the movements of his hands.

"Well, I'm not really sure how to describe it…" Herakles began, wanting to try to get these strange feelings out of himself before they got any more serious. His heart was still pounding after his fight with Sadik. "I feel strange…"

"Is everything okay? Are you sick?" His mother asked worriedly, pulling closer to Herakles, placing her hand carefully onto his cheek.

"I don't think it's that… Although, I'm not sure…" He replied, shaking his head. He honestly didn't have any idea what was going on. "My heart is beating really fast, and I can't stop thinking about things… I suppose lately I could be acting more irritable too…"

Helene frowned, nudging Herakles's cheek with her forehead, trying to check him over. "Why don't you think you're sick? Is there anything that's happened that explains this?" She pressed, really wanting to help her son as much as she was able to.

"Well… I was speaking to Sadik earlier… He suggested that one of my friends… Could be more than a friend to me. At first I thought he was totally wrong… But now I just don't know." Herakles sighed. What was getting into him?

"A crush on someone? I suppose those kinds of feelings can cause you to feel strange and irritable sometimes… And they can certainly make your heart beat faster…" Helene smiled. "You're fully grown now Herakles, you're old enough to get a mate if you want. You should tell your friend how you feel about her."

"Ah…" Herakles looked down before he spoke in reply. "Him, mama"

"Oh, of course." Helene blinked. "Is that what you were worried about? I really don't mind, nobody would think any less of you…"

Herakles was almost entirely sure that if he told everyone he was talking about a human male, they actually would care. A lot. But he didn't want to talk to his mother about that at the time. "It's not really that… I suppose I was just confused about it all. But it seems clearer now." He told her.

Helene nodded knowingly, embracing her son in comfort. "It's alright, I understand. Young mermen your age often feel confused… Working out who you want to be with… it can be difficult. I'm always here to help you figure out any feelings you may be having," she reiterated her support.

At this point, Loukas swam into the coral, looking for his brother. He saw that Helene and Herakles seemed to be talking about something, and got a little more curious.

"Ah, you're all in here. Has anything happened?" He asked, swimming closer to his family.

"Herakles was telling me about a crush he's developed on someone," Helene answered, frankly.

"Ah. Have you told them yet?" Loukas inquired simply. Their family was normally open about this kind of thing, so he didn't see a problem with talking like that.

"Well, not yet…" Herakles sighed. He did want to talk to Kiku about it… But he really wasn't sure how the other would react. His mother's words had left him confident in the assertion that he did like Kiku that way, but he was still unsure how to proceed.

"Okay. You should just tell them though. It's better that they know. Getting the feelings out in the open instead of bottling them up is important. Even if they don't feel the same way, it'll be better for your friendship if you don't keep it hidden," his brother offered in advice, smiling slightly.

Helene nodded in agreement. "He's right Hera… Your friend won't think any worse of you for it, I'm sure of that."

Herakles nodded, reassured. "Okay then," he agreed. "I'll talk to him when I can."

"That sounds good," Loukas concurred. "Be sure to keep us posted on how it goes. We'll help you more if we can," he added.

"I'd love to know who it is that you like," Helene pondered. "Even if you do seem a little reluctant to talk about it."

"I suppose you could say… That for now at least, it's a secret," Herakles responded. His family seemed okay with it on a whole, respecting his decision.

"Okay, so long as you know we're always here to talk," Helene summed up, Loukas nodding to affirm.

Herakles nodded, his mind already forming plans for how he was going to tell Kiku. Tomorrow, he would make his feelings known.

Kiku walked out towards the rocks the next morning, yawning happily from the good night's rest he had enjoyed. The day was warm and sunny, and seemed perfect for meeting Herakles again. Kiku wasn't to know what was going to happen. As he sat carefully at the usual meeting place and waited for his friend to arrive, the human took the time to look out over the sea and admire the view, wondering if he should paint it. Overall, the day so far seemed slow and peaceful.

Herakles broke the surface soon after, spotting Kiku immediately and swimming over to him. He felt nervous. Despite however many times he had gone over it in his head, he still found himself unsure as to what exactly he was going to say, as if the words had flown out of his head at the last moment. Trying to steel himself, and above all to not show his nerves, the merman smiled at the human before pulling himself out of the water. He could do this.

"Good morning," he began, smiling still.

"Hello Herakles. It is nice to see you again," Kiku replied fondly. Herakles nodded, taking a few deep breaths, convincing himself he had nothing to lose.  
"It's good to see you too Kiku…" He looked down at the sea. "Can we talk for a moment?"

The human looked puzzled at his words. "Aren't we already talking? I thought that was why we were meeting up today," he pondered, trying to grasp what Herakles meant.

"Well, I guess we are… But I meant that I wanted to talk to you about something important," Herakles continued, his voice faulting a little as nerves started to show through again. He tried to swallow it down.

"Oh? If it's important, then of course we can talk about it," Kiku replied, eyebrows raising a little. He wasn't sure what was so important that Herakles would want to talk to him of all people about it though. Surely he would go to his brother for help with most things?

"Well…" The merman began, nerves really starting to show as he began to speak. "I've been thinking a lot about things recently… I spoke to Sadik after yesterday, and he told me his opinion… On certain matters. And then I asked my family too, and came to a kind of conclusion…" He fell silent for a moment, trying to calm himself.

"About what?" Kiku encouraged, noticing that Herakles seemed nervous about something, and trying to reassure him. At the same time, he felt slightly anxious about it as well. If Herakles was this emotional over it, in his eyes it had to be important.

"About… The way I feel about you. About our relationship… Recently, I've been feeling strange a lot of the time," he confessed, wringing his hands together. "I've been more on edge, and at first I thought that was just because the rest of the pod was getting suspicious, and I didn't want to put you in harm's way. But after what Sadik said, I've started to realise that it's more than that. It's been building up over time, and after talking to my family about it I thought it was best that I tell you now, rather than keep this secret for any length of time," Herakles realised he was rambling, and looked up at Kiku concernedly.

"What… What feeling are you talking about? What do you mean?" Kiku asked, his heart starting to beat faster. He didn't understand this sort of thing much at all. What was going on?  
"Well, these feelings… My heart beats faster at certain points, especially times like this, and when you're around… And my face heats up and I feel all nervous. I didn't know what was happening to me. I was also getting a lot more irritable when I felt there were threats to you. And I kept thinking about my feelings." He described. Kiku nodded, feeling increasingly on edge. He was almost starting to feel the exact things Herakles was describing.

"And then," Herakles continued, "When I spoke to Sadik, he suggested that we actually weren't friends at all. I felt confused, and so I talked first to my mama and then to Loukas. And then I came to the conclusion about what this all could mean." He took a deep breath, realising that he was dragging this out, but needing this much time to get the courage for what he was going to say.

"What was that conclusion?" Kiku felt just a little giddy, almost being able to guess at what was going to happen, but still not quite believing or understanding it. He still didn't want this to eat Herakles with worry though. Overall, he was conflicted.

"That I… Like you more than a friend would. That I have a crush on you," Herakles stated, blushing quite a bit. It was hard to say, but he was relieved just to get it out finally.

Kiku meanwhile, stammered incomprehensible nonsense for a few seconds, still unable to process what he'd been told. He didn't know how to react. He didn't know how he felt about Herakles, and he wasn't sure what to tell him. He hadn't really seen it coming before today; he had always just assumed he and Herakles were friends. He wasn't used to this. Unprepared. So he did the only thing he could think of.

Kiku ran away.


End file.
